BBC Infringed By A Chinese Firm
A Chinese court has ruled in favor of British Broadcasting Corporation in a trademark infringement lawsuit that a Beijing firm using "BBC" trademark without authorization.
The court made the first instance sentence that the Beijing iYuba Tech Company should immediately stop the infringement of the exclusive right to use the "BBC" trademark and compensate British Broadcasting Corporation for economic losses and reasonable expenses totaling 1 million yuan ($143,400).
British Broadcasting Corporation claimed that the trademark involves its enterprise name, which has high popularity in China. Without permission, the Beijing firm used the "BBC" logo prominently on its two company websites, it’s public account on Chinese social media WeChat, and five mobile applications developed by iYuba.
Beijing iYuba Tech Company is a firm aims to develop English learning applications. BBC claimed that iYuba's using of the "BBC" logo makes the public mistakenly believe that the applications and services provided by iYuba are associated with BBC and causes confusion to the public.
The court heard that relevant logos used by iYuba, although slightly different in font and color with additional words such as "English," the overall visual effect is similar to the BBC trademark of British Broadcasting Corporation.