Recently, the Wuxi courts released the “Top Ten Cases of Judicial Protection of Intellectual Property Rights for 2025.” The case “Unfair Competition Involving Imitation of the ‘New Balance’ Sports Shoes Trade Dress,” in which Lusheng Law Firm acted as counsel, was honorably selected.
Brief Overview of the Case
The trade dress of “New Balance” sports shoes, including the prominent use of the capital, bold letter “N” on both sides of the shoes, has been recognized in multiple effective judgments by the Supreme People’s Court and other courts as a product trade dress with a certain degree of influence. However, multiple entities including the defendant Niu Company, Xin Company, Sheng Company, and others, produced and sold on a large scale sports shoes bearing the “
” sign nationwide through online e-commerce platforms and offline physical stores (claiming to have more than 1,000 stores). The plaintiff considered that the defendants, by unauthorized use of a sign similar to its well-known product trade dress, acted with obvious subjective malice and on a massive infringing scale, and therefore engaged Lusheng Law Firm to take full responsibility for formulating the litigation strategy and acting as counsel in this case.
The Lusheng team systematically sorted out evidence of the scale of the defendants’ infringement and their profits, and constructed a rigorous evidentiary system for damages. The court fully adopted the submissions of counsel, finding that the accused infringing sign was similar to the “N” letter trade dress and sufficient to cause confusion among the relevant public. The court ordered the defendants to cease the infringement, destroy inventory, publish a statement in the China Intellectual Property News to eliminate the adverse impact, and compensate the plaintiff for economic losses and reasonable expenses in the amount of RMB 15 million. Dissatisfied with the first-instance judgment, the defendants appealed. The second-instance judgment dismissed the appeal and upheld the original judgment.
Typical Significance
I. Dual-Track Protection Strategy Successfully Overcomes the Registered Trademark Defense
In response to the infringers’ defense that they were ostensibly using their registered trademarks lawfully, the team innovatively adopted the approach under the Anti-Unfair Competition Law, asserting that the “N” sign had already constituted a distinctive trade dress of a product with a certain degree of influence. Through meticulous comparison of the shoe designs and analysis of the overall visual effect, the team successfully demonstrated that the infringers deliberately highlighted the “N” sign to free-ride on the goodwill of New Balance, which was sufficient to cause consumer confusion and showed clear subjective malice.
II. Determination of Joint and Several Liability to Ensure the Effectiveness of Judgment Enforcement
With respect to the integrated infringement chain formed through division of labor and cooperation among multiple affiliated companies and key natural persons, the team conducted in-depth investigations and fully adduced evidence of each defendant’s substantive participation in production and business operations, including the fact that major shareholders directly participated in the infringing acts. The court ultimately held that each defendant bore joint and several liability, effectively blocking the infringers’ attempt to disperse liability through corporate structuring, and significantly enhancing the enforceability of the judgment and the effectiveness of subsequent enforcement.
III. Data-Based Calculation of Damages and Comprehensive Restoration of Market Order
Given the massive scale of the infringement, the team, based on transaction data obtained through multiple notarized purchases, constructed a multi-dimensional profit calculation model, fully demonstrating that the actual profits of the infringers far exceeded the claimed amount, which ultimately prompted the court to award a high amount of damages of RMB 15 million. In addition to monetary compensation, the case also achieved a significant market governance effect: the number of infringing stores dropped sharply from more than one thousand to thirty-eight.
