Facebook Wins Trademark Dispute Against Chinese Beverage Company

When it comes to trademark protection in China, other  U.S. companies have not much luck. Facebook recently disputed a case regarding a Chinese beverage using Facebook as its trademark.

A rare Chinese court ruling has favored Facebook extensive efforts ordering a Chinese company that it can no longer make use "face book" as its trademark. The Beijing Higher People's Court revealed that it had rescind approval for Zhujiang Beverage that process flavored milk drinks and porridge, to use the name.

As reported by Time, the company's marketing manager debated against the court's verdict stating that the Chinese translation of the words "face book", "lian shu" in Chinese means masks used in traditional Chinese opera.  According to Liu Hongqun, "Lian shu is something very Chinese."

The Chinese company dealt objections from Facebook , but gained approval in 2014 from the Trademark

Review and Adjudication Board to use the name. In a decision posted on its identified Weibo account, the Beijing court said that the trade mark authority's approval had been canceled and that depends on the regulator to review its decision.

Facebook generally wasn't  glad and went to and fro with the trademark authority before bringing the matter to the Beijing court in the end. The social media platform won the original lawsuit while Zhujiang appealed but lost again, The Wall Street Journal reports.

Regarding social media, Chinese internet users theorized that Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg's admiration for China may have helped his firm win. He gained media attention when he jogged on a heavily-smog day in Beijing this spring and his conspicuous placement of Chinese President Xi Jinping's "The Governance of China". 

According to Reuters, lawyers say that Chinese intellectual property protections are often distinguished as quite less strict but are steadily improving. The win may offer a gleam of hope for Facebook in China where its social media network is not available and its business is primarily selling overseas advertising for Chinese firms.

The Facebook victory is a promising speck of light for U.S. firms which recently have been under the trademark gun.

Tags

Facebook, China, Zhujiang Beverage, Mark Zuckerberg

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