Case Brief

The  origins of  the Postal Savings Bank of China can be traced back to the postal savings business  established in 1919  boasting a history of over a century. In March 2007,  pursuant to the State Council’s overall plan for financial system reform and with its approval,  Postal Savings Bank of China Co., Ltd. was officially established. In November 2007, the Postal Savings Bank of China applied for  the registration of trademarks, including "", which were  approved for registration in March and September 2010. The trademarks were designated for use  in services such as banking, financial services,  and savings banks.

In May 2011, Postal Storage Fertilizer Company and others applied for  registration of trademarks, including “郵儲(chǔ)肥 (You Chu Fei)”.  Subsequently, they applied for additional trademarks such as “政儲(chǔ) (Zheng Chu)”, “郵儲(chǔ)甄好 (You Chu Zhen Hao)”, and “郵蓄肥 (You Chu Fei)”. They used  trademarks like “郵儲(chǔ)肥 (You Chu Fei)” on fertilizer products they manufactured and sold over  an extended period, and promoted and sold these products through offline stores, websites, and the Douyin platform. The product packaging adopted the yellow-green color scheme exclusive to the  Postal Savings Bank and extensively  featured promotional slogans such as “郵儲(chǔ)相伴 (You Chu Xiang Ban)” and “郵儲(chǔ)配送 (You Chu Pei Song)” on packaging and  in related publicity and promotions. Additionally,  they registered “郵儲(chǔ) (You Chu)” as part of their enterprise name and used it, along with registering the domain name “youchufeiliao.com” and others.Against the above acts of trademark infringement and unfair competition of the Postal Storage Fertilizer Company and others, the Postal Savings Bank of China filed a lawsuit with the Xuzhou Intermediate People's Court in accordance with the law.

Court Judgment

 In the first instance, the Xuzhou Intermediate People's Court ruled that the trademarks "", "", and "" of the Postal Savings Bank of China  were widely recognized by the relevant public in China before 2011, constituting well-known trademarks.The malicious application for registration of the trademarks such as "郵儲(chǔ)肥 (You Chu Fei)", "政儲(chǔ) (Zheng Chu)", and "郵儲(chǔ)甄好 (You Chu Zhen Hao)" performed by the Postal Storage Fertilizer Company, Feng XX and others, and their acts of extensive use of the above trademarks on fertilizer products constituted trademark infringement. Registration and use of the enterprise name containing the characters "郵儲(chǔ) (You Chu)" constituted unfair competition. This judgment has come into effect.

Case Significance

Representing the Postal Savings Bank of China, a state-owned enterprise  critical to national security and the national economy, Unitalen not only secured  the first-ever recognition of the three trademarks "", "", and "" as well-known trademarks,  thereby protecting the bank’s legitimate rights and interests, but also  effectively curbed malicious trademark infringement attempts to exploit state-owned enterprises,  preventing further harm to consumers and upholding the fair and honest market competition order.