Recently, the Supreme People’s Court heard the CR Lighting case with CR Lighting Store located in Jinniu District, Chengdu, Sichuan, etc. as the Respondent, filed by CR and CR Intellectual Property for retrial in accordance with the law, and finally overturned the verdicts of the first and second instances and rejudged the respondent to stop trademark infringement and unfair competition and compensate for damages, which strongly protected CR’s legitimate rights and interests.

In this case, the original courts of first and second instances found that it is justified for the other party to derive its business name from the name of his son (he was named as “Huarun” in 2001 and established a company and registered its name as “Huarun” in 2002 which is same as the name of China Resources in Chinese). The Supreme People’s Court, after hearing the case, corrected the verdict in accordance with the law and found that the commercial use of the name “Huarun” had infringed upon CR’s prior rights.

In addition, the Supreme People’s Court clearly determined that wholesale and retail services and class 35 “sales promotion (for others)” constitute similar services in this case for the first time, unifying the differences in the national judicial system on this issue and laying a solid foundation for the national protection to the “China Resources” trademark in the wholesale and retail sector, and providing a solution to the problem of intellectual property protection for wholesale and retail enterprises in the past 20 years.

This case is a milestone for the comprehensive defense of the “China Resources” trademark, for the judicial progress of intellectual property protection, and for the healthy development of the wholesale and retail industry.