The Beijing Intellectual Property Court recently concluded an unfair competition dispute between the Palace Museum, Sichuan Palace Wine Co., Ltd. (Sichuan Palace Wine), Palace Museum Wine (Beijing) Co., Ltd. and sentenced the defendant to compensate RMB330,000 (USD4,657) for economic losses.
The court held that the Forbidden City used to be the imperial palace of the Ming and Qing dynasties, and later became the Palace Museum in Beijing. It is a national key cultural relic protection unit and a world cultural heritage. It has long been known to the public and enjoys a high reputation. When mentioning "Forbidden City in Chinese," people will first think of the Palace Museum, not other meanings. Beijing Forbidden City Company promoted wine products on its website and marks "Supervised by the Palace Museum" next to the displayed product pictures and displays a sign with "Supervised by the Palace Museum"; Beijing Forbidden City Company registered the "Forbidden City Liquor Brand Center" WeChat public account on February 21, 2017 to display the wine bottle and packaging pictures of the "Forbidden City Liquid" liquor, and the base showing the liquor bottle was marked with the words "produced by the Palace Museum in Beijing," etc. As of the hearing date of this case on June 9, 2022, the said Public Account still labeled the time as September 22, 201 and the content was marked with the words "supervised by the Palace Museum" on the base of the "Forbidden City Liquid" liquor displayed. The words "Supervised by the Palace Museum" contained the name of the original enterprise name, and "Forbidden City in Chinese" is a well-known and recognizable name in the enterprise name of the Palace Museum. Therefore, the above acts were enough to make the relevant public misunderstand the source of the goods. Even if the Beijing Forbidden City Company standardized and used its corporate name on its webpage, it was enough to cause the relevant public to mistakenly believe that the company has a close relationship with the Forbidden City, thereby damaging the competitive interests of the Forbidden City. The Beijing Forbidden City Company has violated the Palace Museum's rights and interests of the "Forbidden City in Chinese" name which constituted unfair competition. The words "Supervised by the Palace Museum" marked on the packaging box of the "Forbidden City Liquid" liquor bottle produced and sold by Sichuan Palace Museum Company contained the name of the Palace Museum. Therefore, the said behavior was enough to make the relevant public misunderstand the source of the goods, infringed on the rights and interests of the "Forbidden City in Chinese" name of the Palace Museum, and constituted unfair competition.
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