New Balance Wins $1.5 Million in Landmark China Trademark Case<br />The court said the three defendants behind New Boom — Zheng Chaozhong, Xin Ping Heng Sporting Goods Limited Company<br />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.<br />In the decision, the Suzhou Intermediate People’s Court, near Shanghai, ruled<br />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.<br />BEIJING — A Chinese court has ruled that three domestic shoemakers must pay New Balance $1.5 million in damages<br />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.<br />In April, a court in the eastern city of Hangzhou awarded New Balance $500,000 in damages after ruling<br />that a company that made New Bunren shoes infringed the American company’s trademark.<br />It has not been wholly successful — in April 2015, a Chinese court fined New Balance around $16 million<br />after it lost a lawsuit to a man who had registered the trademark for the Chinese name of New Balance.
