Our law firm helped to take back Furuta trademark for our client by going though the retrial case after 3 years’ efforts.

    The company Furuta is a Japanese company, which was established in 1961 in Osaka. It is mainly engaged in chocolate, biscuits, sweets and so on. ”Furuta” is the English translation of the company’s founder’s family name. The company used the”Furuta” as its enterprise name and trademark since its creation 

    When the company Furuta filed a trademark ”Furuta” before the Trademark Office in 2011 in China, the trademark’s application was rejected for the reason that the ”Furuta” was registered by a company named Wangtong in 2005.

    There was a high-risk to use the”Furuta” as trademark in China for the company Furuta, as the trademark owned by Wangtong. So the company Furuta filed an invalidity proceeding against Wangtong’ registered trademark before the Trademark Review and Adjudication Board. At the same time, the company Furuta filed appeal before the Trademark Review and Adjudication Board regarding its trademark rejection. If Wangtong’s trademark was invalid, the company Furuta’s trademark should be registered.

    Unfortunately, the company Furuta failed in the first instance and second instance regarding the administrative litigation against the invalidation of the Wangtong’s trademark.

    Our law firm represented the company Furuta to file a petition for a retrial before the Supreme People’s Court. The difficulty to win the case was to prove the company Furuta gained a certain popularity and influence in China before the date of the trademark application owned by Wangtong with sufficient evidence. So we went to the company Furuta assisting digging for evidence in Japan. Meanwhile, our lawyer went to the several libraries to search for potential evidence for weeks in Beijing. In the end, it lasted for half a year, and finally formed thousands of pages of new evidence, as well as hundreds of pages of retrial application and legal opinion submitted to the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court supported our opinion that the company Furuta had used the”Furuta” as its enterprise name and enjoyed a certain influence. The registration of the trademark Furuta by Wangtong infringed the company Furuta’s prior enterprise name. Therefore, Wangtong’s trademark was invalid.

    We submitted the favorable judgment to the case of the rejection regarding the company Furuta’s trademark. As the barrier of the company Furuta’s trademark eliminated, the company Furuta’s trademark was approved to register in China.