Xiaomi has landed in troubled waters as the State Intellectual Property Office in China declared that the litigation request from the company was denied by the Beijing Intellectual Property Court. As per the decision, the disputed trademark in the case was in March 2018 by Xiaomi Technology Co., Ltd. The English “MIX” trademark applied with number 29673851, and the designated goods are scientific instruments – computers, pedometers, mobile phones, sensors, etc.
Trademarks cited include legitimate trademarks belonging to “MIX” registered by Zhuhai Meizu Technology Co., Ltd., Higher Information Technology (Shenzhen) Co., Ltd., and other companies. The court considered that the disputed trademark and each referenced trademark have a unique identifying part “MIX”, which has the same letter structure, meaning, call, etc., which can easily cause confusion among the concerned public.
Considering the fact that the disputed trademark and each referenced trademark constitute the same trademark used on the same or similar goods, the decision of the case was to deny the plaintiff’s request to Xiaomi Technology Co., Ltd. After the decision of the first example, Xiaomi Technology Co., Ltd. filed an appeal in the second instance.
The Beijing Higher People’s Court considered that the disputed trademark and the goods actually handled by the registrar of the trademarks referenced are not related to goods designated or permitted to be used under the trademark name.
Xiaomi’s relevant appeal grounds lacked factual and legal grounds, and the court did not support it. Therefore, the appeal was dismissed and the original decision was upheld.
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