China's Supreme Court Targets Trade Names and Drama Titles Used to Ride on Others' Brands
Photo: YangGuangWu / Pixabay
China's Supreme People's Court is using its annual set of "typical cases" to send a clear message about brand free-riding. A review article published by the court's IP Tribunal on 10 October 2026 revisits nine unfair competition cases and six antitrust cases the court released during China's fair competition policy week, and two of them speak directly to trademark owners.
A trade name is not a safe harbour
In the first case, a jewellery company registered a trade name containing the words "Liu Fu" (六福), close to the well-known registered marks "Liu Fu" and "Liu Fu Jewellery", and licensed a similar sign for jewellery. According to the SPC's account, the first-instance court found trademark infringement and unfair competition. The appeal court kept the infringement finding but held that registering and using the company name was not unfair competition. On retrial, the SPC reversed that point and restored the first-instance judgment.
The rule the court highlighted, as summarised by the SPC and by Chinese agency J&C, is that registering a sign similar to another party's registered mark as an enterprise trade name can be unfair competition if it is still likely to cause confusion, even when the full company name is used in a formally correct way. A competitor in the same trade should have known of the famous mark, so the intention to borrow its goodwill was clear.
Riding on a hit drama
The second case involved liquor sold under the name of a popular TV drama. According to the SPC review, two companies set up while the series was on air had a brewery produce drinks under the drama's title, in lettering very close to the font of the show's opening credits, and promoted them with the characters' names and scenes from the show. The Shanghai courts held that the title had become a commercial sign "with a certain influence" and that the conduct was passing off. Damages of RMB 5 million were awarded, with the brewery jointly liable for RMB 500,000 because it failed to check the use of the title.
Lessons for brand owners in Indonesia
Both cases deal with problems Indonesian brand owners know well: company names that borrow a famous mark, and products that cash in on a popular film or series. In Indonesia, company names are registered through the online system at the Ministry of Law, and the trademark and company-name systems are not fully linked, so conflicts still happen. The Trademark Law (Law No. 20 of 2016) lets the owner of a well-known mark challenge confusingly similar marks, and Article 21 refuses applications that resemble famous names without consent. Brand owners expanding to China should register their marks there early, including Chinese-character versions, and watch company registrations, not only trademark filings.
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