New Balance Wins $1.5 Million in Landmark China Trademark Case
The court said the three defendants behind New Boom — Zheng Chaozhong, Xin Ping Heng Sporting Goods Limited Company
and Bo Si Da Ke Trading Limited — had relied on the “malice of free-riding,” saying their actions led to “confusion by a large number of consumers,” according to the ruling, which was made last Tuesday but has not yet been made public.
In the decision, the Suzhou Intermediate People’s Court, near Shanghai, ruled
that three defendants that made shoes under the brand New Boom “seized market share from New Balance” and “drastically damaged the business reputation of New Balance,” according to a copy of the decision, which was sent to by the American company.
BEIJING — A Chinese court has ruled that three domestic shoemakers must pay New Balance $1.5 million in damages
and legal costs for infringing the American sportswear company’s signature slanting “N” logo, in what lawyers said was the largest trademark infringement award ever granted to a foreign business in China.
In April, a court in the eastern city of Hangzhou awarded New Balance $500,000 in damages after ruling
that a company that made New Bunren shoes infringed the American company’s trademark.
It has not been wholly successful — in April 2015, a Chinese court fined New Balance around $16 million
after it lost a lawsuit to a man who had registered the trademark for the Chinese name of New Balance.
