French cement giant wins trademark infringement case in China

February 20, 2008

Chengdu Municipal Intermediate People’s Court of southwest China’s Sichuan Province concluded the trial of trademark dispute brought up by the world’s largest cement maker Lafarge on December 19, 2007. French Lafarge Building Material Co., Ltd, a Hong Kong registered company, was ordered to pay Lafarge RMB 300,000 ($40,000) in compensation. The court also banned a Sichuan Chengdu Gypsum firm and its owner surnamed Zhao from illegally using the Lafarge brand. The Hong Kong company had a very good knowledge about Lafarge’s brand effect and established a building material company under the business name of Lafarge in 2005. Since 2006, the Hong Kong company has illegally allowed the Sichuan firm to use Lafarge’s Chinese name on its products and charged RMB 60,000 ($8,000) royalty fee every year. The Sichuan company and Zhao had issued a great deal of publicity materials in the name of Lafarge to promote products.