Chinese Supreme Court: hoarding trade marks in bad faith falls within scope of �illegitimate means�
In a retrial proceeding (No 4191 [2017], Petition, Administrative Division, SPC, 29 June 2018, the Chinese desicion can be found here ), the Supreme People�s Court of China (SPC) clarified that hoarding a large number of trade marks without intention to use falls within the scope of �other illegitimate means� prohibited by Article 44, Section 1 of China�s Trademark Law. Background The trade mark at issue is �??� in class 36 (Filing No 13675000). Wuhan Zhongjun Ltd (hereinafter referred to as Wuhan Zhongjun) applied for registration in December 2013, and the trade mark was registered in February 2015. In December 2015, Beijing Shanyin Qiyi Ltd (hereinafter referred to as Shanyin Qiyi) initiated the invalidation proceeding against the �??� registration. It claimed that Wuhan Zhongjun was a trade mark squatter and had hoarded over 1,000 trade marks in bad faith. On 19 October 2016, the Trademark Review and Adjudication Board of China (TRAB) invalidated the disputed trade...