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Lehman, Lee & Xu Comments on Carrefour’s lawsuit against Chinese supermarket chain over name

26.08.10 15:08 Age: 14 yrs
Lehman, Lee & Xu Comments on Carrefour’s lawsuit against Chinese supermarket chain over name

BEIJING - Carrefour SA has filed a lawsuit against Anhui Jiale Supermarket Chain Co Ltd and its subsidiaries in Fuyang, claiming they violated the rule of fair competition and infringed upon the Carrefour trademark.

 

The local supermarket chain was accused of illegally using the logo "Jialefu," the Chinese version of "Carrefour," in their company name and business activities. Carrefour claims that the Jiale supermarkets use a blue logo similar to Carrefour's on their shop signs, price tags, receipts, and shopping bags. This is likely to cause consumer confusion as to the source of the supermarkets.

 

The French retailer has requested the Hefei Intermediate People's Court to order the Jiale Company to change its logo and pay Carrefour 6 million yuan ($882,164) in compensation.

 

Jiale, established in 2002, was initially registered as Anhui Fuyang Jialefu Business and Commerce Co Ltd. The company changed its name from "Jialefu" to "Jiale" in August 2009. Jiale claims it has not infringed on Carrefour's trademark since the company changed its name from "Jialefu" to "Jiale" before the lawsuit was filed.

 

Edward E. Lehman of Lehman, Lee & Xu commented that, “We have seen many cases involving the infringement of well-known trademarks in China in the past few years.” “China’s Law Against Unfair Competition provides that a business operator shall not harm his competitors in market transactions by counterfeiting a registered trademark of another person of by using for a commodity without authorization a unique name, or using a name, package or decoration similar to that of another’s famous commodity, thereby confusing the commodity with that famous commodity and leading the purchasers to mistake the former for the latter” he added.

Lehman, Lee & Xu is a prominent Chinese corporate law firm and trademark and patent agency with offices in Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Hong Kong, Macau, and Mongolia. The firm is recognized as a leading expert in corporate law and an active member of the Shanghai community.

To learn more about us, please visit our website at www.lehmanlaw.com.

 

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