No judgement in trademark lawsuit

Two Chinese herbal tea makers involved in a dispute over their products' external packaging and designs took their case to the Guangdong Province Higher People's Court yesterday.

JDB Group, which was ordered to stop using the Wong Lo Kat trademark following a ruling by the China International Economic and Trade Arbitration Commission last year, argued in court yesterday that it owned the patent for the design of the product in red pop can. It demanded that Guangzhou Pharmaceutical Group stop using it and asked for 500,000 yuan in compensation from the Guangzhou company for economic losses.

However, Guangzhou Pharmaceutical countersued JDB for compensation of 150 million yuan (US$24.2 million), and argued that the product design is part of the Wong Lo Kat trademark. It said JDB should stop producing and selling the red-can herbal tea.

Guangzhou Pharmaceutical owns the Wong Lo Kat trademark, and JDB makes herbal tea under the Jiaduobao brand.

The court didn't reach a verdict on the two lawsuits yesterday.

JDB, a unit of Hong Kong-based Hung To (Holdings) Co, provided evidence in court that it owned the patent for the packaging design though it had been producing the Wong Lo Kat herbal tea in iconic red cans since 1997 under the trademark authorization from Guangzhou Pharmaceutical.

However, Guangzhou Pharmaceutical argued that the product's packaging design could not be separated from the trademark, and accused JDB of violating the unfair competition law.