On October 12, 2018, Guangzhou Intellectual Property Court (GIPC) made the second-instance judgment on the case involving a dispute against Guangzhou Xin Fan Cai Trading Co., Ltd. over the infringement of Levi`s trademark consisting of double arcs. In this case, Chang Tsi & Partners helped Levi`s convince the court of second instance to sustain the original judgment ordering the two Defendants to cease the acts of infringing the Plaintiff`s trademark right and pay a compensation of CNY 130,000 for the economic losses suffered by Lihui Company, which runs the brand in China.

Having been highly recommended and promoted by the GIPC, this case was also recently recognized as one of the excellent cases on the 4^th anniversary of the establishment of the Court. Besides, Southern Metropolis Daily and other influential media have published many reports on this case.

Levi`s is a US clothing brand known worldwide for its jeans, and has a history of more than 150 years. The jeans of this brand are provided with two pairs of special double arcs on the back pockets, which, together with the graphic trademark, have been the registered trademarks of Levi`s. However, the Defendants in the case, without permission from Levi`s, used a mark similar to the trademark involved on the products of the same class. On this basis, Lihui Company authorized Chang Tsi to lodge an action with court.

The court of first instance determined that the mark accused of infringement and the trademark involved were similar, and ordered the two Defendants to immediately stop their acts of infringement and compensate for the corresponding economic losses. Subsequently, the two Defendants were dissatisfied with the judgment of first instance, and took their appeal to Guangzhou Intellectual Property Court. At the trial of second instance, an intense confrontation and debate took place over a series of key issues including, for example, the scope of the claims in first instance, the objectivity of the notarization in first instance, and the trademark involved constituting a general graphic design or not. Finally, the court of second instance rejected the appeal and upheld the original judgment.

The victory in this case and the honor as one of the excellent cases for the past four years since the establishment of the GIPC both display Chang Tsi` s highly professional strengths on litigation. Meanwhile, due to reports by many renowned media, such as Southern Metropolis Daily, the case has received lots of attention from all walks of life. By this case, not only has the trademark exclusively owned by Levi`s been successfully protected, but also the possible infringers will be effectively deterred. Furthermore, this case also has great guiding significance for the future litigations concerning trademark infringement.