Shiseido sues cosmetic firms over trademark

By Angela Xu  |   2008-7-16  |     NEWSPAPER EDITION

JAPANESE cosmetic giant Shiseido's first lawsuit against trademark violation on the Chinese mainland was heard at Pudong New Area People's Court yesterday.

Shiseido Co Ltd upped its demand for compensation to 4.8 million yuan (US$701,754) from 1.8 million yuan, saying that the defendants had made huge profits with a widespread sales network.

The company is also demanding a public promise to stop infringing the trademark from the accused couple - Li Wei and Ma Yan - and their three companies, including Shanghai Jingdian Cosmetic Co Ltd, Shanghai Runmei Bio-tech Development Co Ltd and Shanghai Xiaoxian Meiye Bio-tech Co Ltd.

The court did not announce a verdict yesterday.

Shiseido told judges that the company's trademark was first used on the Chinese mainland in 1981. A survey showed 98 percent of Chinese people had heard of the brand.

The defendants used a similar logo, Shidoas, with the same font and the same Chinese characters as Shiseido's Chinese trademark on cosmetics packages, adverts and Website without its permission, the court heard.

Ma also registered Shidoas (France) International Group Co Ltd in Hong Kong and printed the words "authorized by Shidoas (France)" on their products, Shiseido alleged.

The plaintiff provided various cosmetics packages with the Shidoas logo as evidence that the defendants kept using the offending design.

The defendants had more than 100 agents to cover 28 provinces and municipalities, with advertising slots on television, according to Shiseido.

"It means the defendants must have accumulated huge profits," said Zhang Liang, Shiseido's lawyer.

The defendants denied that Shidoas was similar to Shiseido and said the two brands would not confuse consumers.

"Now that Shiseido is famous, people should know it is a Japanese brand. The Hong Kong company name stresses the word France, so it won't confuse consumers," said the lawyer for the defendants.

The defendants also disagreed with the compensation amount, saying that they couldn't afford to pay that much.