Haidian District People’s Court issued the judgment on Bestseller Fashion (Tianjin) Co., Ltd. v. Cui Huansuo and Du Xinghua trademark infringement dispute relating to the brands JACK&JONES and “杰克.琼斯” on 26 April 2011, the World Intellectual Property Day. Lifang lawyers, Ms. Zhang Bin and Ms. Zhang Lei, represented the Danish client, Bestseller, winning the court’s support for all Bestseller’s claims.

The defendants were ordered to stop selling products bearing both the English and Chinese trademarks of JACK&JONES, to close down their on-line stores, to stop using domain, jackjonescn.net, and agree that Bestseller should register and use said domain, to make public statements about the infringement on Legal Daily and sina.com to remove any bad influence on Bestseller’s business reputation, and to pay the plaintiff RMB 1.99 million as compensation for economic losses.

This case has set up an example of cracking down trademark infringement on the Internet. First, it is a typical case where the accused infringer sold products bearing other’s brand on online stores after registering a domain relating to that brand. The court awarded the highest monetary amount ever known in similar actions till now. Second, it is the first judicial case where the court for the first time expressly held that providing an infringer with an infringing domain constituted assisting the infringement and such domain owner shall bear joint and several liability with the actual user of the domain. The case thus set up a valuable precedence for future disputes.