Recently, the Higher People's Court of Zhejiang Province concluded the case of trademark infringement and unfair competition dispute in which Schneider Electric (China) Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as “Schneider Electric”) sued a company and its shareholders. T&C Law Firm represented the client and achieved a complete victory in the first instance, obtaining compensation of more than 106 million RMB.

The court determined that the infringing entity constituted trademark infringement and unfair competition. It should change the infringing trade name, stop using the logo at issue, publish a statement to eliminate the impact on Schneider Electric, and supported the claim of punitive damages, ordering the infringing entity and the natural person shareholder, the actual controller, to jointly compensate for economic losses of more than 106 million RMB and reasonable expenses of 500,000 RMB.

T&C Law Firm team was deeply involved in the investigation in the early stage of the litigation. Through the mutual confirmation of evidence from multiple online platforms and project evidence, it identified the infringing entities on all sides. It retrieved information from libraries in multiple locations and comprehensively collected evidence on the client's popularity, and multi-dimensionally displayed the infringing malice of the defendants from perspectives such as the establishment history of the defendants, publicity history, trademark registration, etc. Eventually, the Higher People's Court of Zhejiang Province determined that the infringing entities constituted trademark infringement and unfair competition, fully supporting our litigation requests.

This case has undergone a complex litigation procedure. After the Hangzhou Intermediate People's Court accepted the case, the infringing entities raised objections to jurisdiction and appealed. During the trial of the case, on behalf of the client, T&C Law Firm successfully added the shareholders of the infringing entities as defendants and responded to the objections to jurisdiction raised by the added shareholders and the hearing procedure of the appeal on jurisdiction objections by the Supreme People's Court again, and all received the court's support for our side. In terms of the claim for compensation, combined with the fully collected evidence of the malice of the infringing entities in the early stage and the financial statement data of the infringing entities obtained during the litigation, on behalf of the client, T&C Law Firm proposed a claim for punitive damages. Through detailed factual arguments in multiple court hearings, tens of thousands of words of agency opinions, and the production and submission of charts, it finally received the support of punitive damages from the Higher People's Court of Zhejiang Province and achieved a rare high amount of compensation in trademark infringement and unfair competition cases in the first instance.

The T&C Law Firm team demonstrated profound professional quality and teamwork spirit in the project and received high praise from the client.