Kiwi fruit order sours for Chinese firm

By Angela Xu  |   2008-7-4  |     NEWSPAPER EDITION

A CHINESE kiwi fruit company has been ordered to pay a Kiwi company compensation and told not to use its trademark sun emblem.

The Shanghai No. 1 Intermediate People's Court yesterday ruled the New Zealand Zespri Group Co Ltd, the world's largest kiwi fruit producer and seller, should get 300,000 yuan (US$43,668) in compensation from Nantong Xishu Fruit Trade Co Ltd and that Xishu must stop using Zespri's trademark immediately.

Zespri said it began to sell kiwi fruit in Shanghai in 1998 and built up a good reputation for taste and nutrition after a long period of promotion.

But Zespri's employees discovered last year that Xishu, a Jiangsu Province company, was selling kiwi fruit under the Znishio name and bearing a sun emblem. The Zespri people thought Znishio was too much like its trademark and reported it to the local market watchdog.

Twice last year the Shanghai Industrial and Commercial Administrative Bureau seized a large number of kiwi fruit, packing boxes and labels with the Znishio trademark. Xishu was also using the Znishio trademark on its store signs, its business cards and Website. Its products were being sold in neighboring cities.

Xishu argued its trademark was very different from Zespri and would never confuse consumers. The sun emblem is commonly identified with kiwi fruit and did not belong to Zespri alone.

But the court said Zespri owns the sun or at least the exclusive rights to the Zespri trademark and the sun emblem. The combination of the label, color and characters used by Xishu were identical enough to make most consumers think Xishu's product was related to Zespri.