As a big name in China's modern history is involved, considerable public attention has been given to the “Lu Xun” domain name dispute, where the defendant had registered six domain names involving the name of Lu Xun, the founder of and the most influential writer in China's modern literature. Recently, Beijing No.1 Intermediate People's Court ordered the defendant to cease using the disputed domain names and bear all the litigation cost. During the trial, Lifang lawyers, Mr. Xie Guanbin and Mr. Zhou Yingjiang, gave an impressive representation for Lu Xun's son, the plaintiff.

The court has applied Article 3 of the Interpretation of the Supreme People's Court on Issues Concerning the Determination of Emotional Damages in Civil Torts and decided that the defendant's use of Lu Xun's name in domain names for commercial purposes or his attempt to sell such domain names has caused emotional suffering to Lu Xun's son and descendance and hurt national sentiment of the Chinese people as well. Therefore, the court has found that the defendant's infringement upon Lu Xun's name “runs counter to public interests and social morality.”

As the current domain name regulations in China do not have any restriction regarding the registration of celebrity names, leading to common occurrence of such cases. The judgment of the case at issue sets up a good precedence for the handling of similar disputes.