Parties: Plaintiff Exxon Mobil; defendants: American Mobil International Petroleum Group and Xi’an Yanqing Technology Development Co.
Dispute: “defendants registered web addresses that included the Chinese characters for ‘Mobil’.” Probably with this is meant the characters 美孚 (mei3 = good, beautiful; fu2 = confidence, trust) and not the Chinese characters that translate mobil, because this word in the English language does not have any meaning. Correct me if I am wrong.
Ruling by the Shanghai No.1 Intermediate People’s Court: defendants infringed Exxon Mobil’s registered trade mark and engaged in unfair competition. Defendants must cease the infringing activity and pay RMB 500,000 Yuan.
Rouse’s excellent newsletter China IP Extress 320 states: “The Court held that, although relevant judicial interpretations have not dealt with the issue, using another’s trade mark in a web address can constitute trade mark infringement.”
