Auchan and footwear manufacturers pay for IP infringement
22/08/2007
A court in Shanghai has ordered two Chinese shoe manufacturers and a French retailer to pay Nike $46,000 in compensation for copyright infringement.
Jinjiang Longzhibu Shoes and Jinjiang Kangwei Shoes manufactured shoes bearing a logo that was “basically the same” as one of Nike’s, the court said, with a silhouette of former basketball star Michael Jordan slam-dunking. The Shanghai branch of retailer Auchan was guilty of selling the products without permission from Nike, it added.
The three companies will also have to publish an apology to counter the negative effects of the infringement.
Nike registered the Jordan logo in China in 1993. In January, its employees purchased four pairs of sports shoes bearing a similar logo from the three Auchan stores in Shanghai. On February 2, Nike's lawyers sent letters to Auchan, informing them of the infringement and asking them to produce purchase and sale records for the product. But the shoes were still on sale at two of the stores at the end of the month, Nike told the court.
As one of the most popular international brands in China, Nike has been a target for many counterfeiters in recent years.
Customs officers in Ningbo said recently that, so far this year, they had seized more than 70,000 pairs of copied shoes bound for export. And in its latest raid, nearly 40,000 pairs of fake Nike shoes were confiscated, along with quantities of products that imitated the Nike and adidas brands.
