F1 Wins in Trademark Infringement Case

On September 20, 2006, Formula One Administration Ltd. (FOA) won the lawsuit at the Beijing No. 2 Intermediate People's Court against eight Chinese fashion companies and shops in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou for trademark infringement.

The court held that the eight defendants should cease the infringement of the plaintiff's registered trademark "F1 Formula 1" (No. G641610) and pay a total compensation of RMB 144,000 yuan (US$18,000) to the plaintiff.

The court was in the opinion that the garments produced and sold by the eight defendants are in the same class as the plaintiff's goods. The court found that the representations of "F1", "F.one" and "F1 JEANS" used by the defendants for their garments, packing and website publicity contain "F1", the prominent part of the registered trademark. Though the infringing trademark "F1 JEANS" contains extra word "JEANS", it is still a general word and the defendants tended to make an emphasis on "F1" in their business activities. Therefore, the court was of the opinion that these representations easily confuse customers and make the public believe that the defendants' products have certain relationship with the goods of the registered trademark "F1 Formula 1". Therefore, the court held that the representations used in the defendants' garments and publicity have infringed the exclusive trademark right of the registered "F1 Formula 1" in class 25.

Formula One Administration Ltd. was established for protecting the intellectual property rights of "FIA Formula World Championship".

With regard to the issue whether the plaintiff has the right to bring lawsuit and claim rights, the court held that according to the agreement signed between the plaintiff and Formula One Licensing B.V., the plaintiff is authorized to have the global exclusive right in using F1 series of trademarks and is entitled to enforce the rights against any third party who has infringed the registered trademark.