1. Case Summary

　　The plaintiff SOCIETE CIVILE DE CHATEAU LAFITE ROTHSCHILD (hereinafter as Lafite Company) sued the defendant Shenzhen Jinhongde Trade Co. Ltd. (hereinafter as Jinhongde) for trademark infringement and unfair competition. Both trial court and appellate court, i.e. Changsha Intermediate People’s Court and Hunan High People’s Court, held that Jinhongde did infringed Lafite Company’s exclusive right of use for the trademark “LAFITE” and constituted unfair competition. The representativeness of this case lies in that by the judgment, the courts recognized “拉菲”, the Chinese translation corresponding to “Lafite”, used by Lafite Company, as a specific name for famous commodity. This recognition founds a solid legal basis for further IP protection under the Chinese trademark “拉菲” in China.

　　2. Comments

　　While “拉菲”, the Chinese translation corresponding to “Lafite”, has not yet been registered in China, there are a lot of infringers take chances to, focusing on confusion of Chinese “拉菲”, mislead relevant public by using, for example, “拉菲世族”, “拉菲帝國(guó)”, “拉菲特”, “拉菲貴族”, etc. Therefore, Lafite Company, relying on the Article 5.2 of Anti-Unfair Competition Law and relevant stipulations of the Interpretation on Several Issues on Application of Law in Hearing Unfair Competition Civil Cases by the Supreme People’s Court, pleaded the court to firstly recognize Chinese “拉菲” as specific name for famous commodity; to find the “拉菲世族” used by Jinhongde is “confusingly similar” to the specific name for famous commodity “拉菲” and then to order Jinhongde to cease unfair competition by stop using “拉菲世族”. All Lafite Company’s pleadings have been affirmed by the court. This case is a landmark for IP protection under Chinese “拉菲”, which would enable Lafite Company to seek protection in future resembling infringement cases by directly citing this valid judgment.