On November 14th, 2018 the Beijing Municipal Administration of Industry and Commerce issued the largest trademark infringement case decided by the Beijing Municipal Administration of Industry and Commerce in the past twenty years – the trademark infringement of the “Onitsuka Tiger” branded ASICS sneakers, with a fine of 55.87 million RMB.
ASICS is a Japanese limited corporation which has registered many trademarks, including those with the word “tiger”. In December of 2017, the Fengtai Branch of the Beijing Municipal Administration of Industry and Commerce, filed a case investigation against Beijing Hongyuan Lide Trading Co. Ltd. The logo used by the company on its athletic shoes is similar to that of ASICS’ “tiger” trademark, which causes confusion and misleads the public.
The Administration of Industry and Commerce ordered the company to stop the infringement, confiscated 6687 pairs of infringing products and issued a fine of 55.78 million RMB, making this the largest case the administration has deal with in the last 20 years.
Statistics show that in 2018, the Beijing Municipal Administration of Industry and Commerce handled a total of 2334 cases, with total fines exceeding 102 million RMB, transferring 22 cases to judicial authorities and raiding 11 businesses where illegal goods were sold.