In its decision rendered on March 20, 2025, Taiwan’s Intellectual Property and Commercial Court (the “IPC Court”) sided with Burberry Limited, affirming that LAICARFORE FASHION CLOTHING LIMITED COMPANY (“Laicarfore”) and ANIDA INTERNATIONAL CO., LTD. (“Anida”) should be liable for infringing the fashion brand’s well-known stripes icon (no.00906192 and no. 00905930, see below).
The defendants, Laicarfore and Anida, are vendors of dresses, shirts, skirts, coats, pants, and the relevant accessories. According to the records, Laicarfore and Anida contracted with factories in China for the supply of apparel products, and then imported and resold them through their own online platform (https://www.laicarfore.com.tw/) under the brand “Anita Su x LaiCarFore”. In around October 2021, Burberry discovered that the defendants were selling clothing bearing similar stripes icon on its website (See below).
Given
that Laicarfore had been sued by and settled with Burberry for trademark
infringement for a couple of times, and that Laicarfore once again breached its
written promise not to infringe Burberry’s trademark, Burberry decided to sue both Laicarfore and Anida for damages in the IPC Court. On July 31, 2024, in
the first instance level, the IPC Court ruled in Burberry’s favor, finding
Laicarfore and Anida jointly liable for trademark infringement, and awarding Burberry
NT$ 3.98 million as damages, including NT$ 3 million as liquidated damages. Both
Laicarfore and Anida appealed.
On
appeal, Laicarfore and Anida argued that the stripes displayed on their products
should not constitute trademark use, and that consumers will not be confused. On
March 20, 2025, the IPC Court affirmed the finding of infringement of
trademark, but reduced the liquidated damages to NT$ 2 million, finding the original
awarded damages too excessive. The total awarded compensation became around NT$2,98
million. The IPC Court’s reasons are as follows:
1.
By
examining the stripes and patterns displayed on the accused products, it is
clear to the IPC Court that the background color similarly is beige, and the
arrangements of thick and thin stripes resemble Burberry’s way of arrangement
of red, black, and white stripes. The overall visual impression of the icon
presented on the accused products is similar to Burberry’s aforesaid famous
stripes logo.
2.
While
there are other decorative elements presented on the accused products, these elements
are randomly placed and not located in the most dominant position. In other
words, consumers would still consider the colorful stripes the most dominant
elements in the accused products.
3.
Although
Laicarfore and Anida contended that the way they presented the color stripes
should not constitute trademark use, the IPC Court disagreed, noting that the colorful
stripes were clearly shown on Laicarfore’s and Anida’s website, and visible to
general consumers when they shopped and purchased the products. As such, there should
be intents on the part of Laicarfore and Anida to attract consumers by using
similar icons on the accused products, which should constitute act of trademark
use.
4.
On
issue of damages, after considering that the defendants have made partial
payments to compensate Burberry, that the defendants’ illegal profits have been
forfeited, and the actual damages incurred upon Burberry, the IPC Court opined
that the original award of NT$ 3 million as liquidated damages was too
excessive. As such, the IPC Court exercised its discretionary power under Article
252 of Civil Code and reduced the liquidated damages to NT$ 2 million only.
Source:
113-Ming-Shan-Shan-Zi
No. 16 (IPC Court, March 20, 2025), see: https://judgment.judicial.gov.tw/FJUD/data.aspx?ty=JD&id=IPCV,113%2c%e6%b0%91%e5%95%86%e4%b8%8a%2c16%2c20250320%2c1