An Australian wine company has won a “landmark” court case in China after more than six years of fighting a copycat brand.
Treasury Wine Estates owns and produces a number of well-known wine labels including Penfolds and Wolf Blass. However, the issue arose when company Rush Rich used part of the Penfolds branding on its own bottles.
After six years of fighting, on Wednesday, the Supreme People’s Court of China ruled in Treasury’s favor, finding that the other wine company had acted in “bad faith” against them.
The court found that Chinese-Australian company Rush Rich improperly used a Chinese character which was a copyright breach of the Penfolds brand.
This was “illicit conduct”, according to the court.
Treasury Wine Estates said the other company had tried to “exploit” its brand and was happy about the decision from the Chinese court, calling it a “landmark win”.
The court ruled that Rush Rich’s registration of the Chinese character mark for Penfolds Winery was invalid.
“We welcome the Judgment by the Supreme People’s Court of China and thank the Chinese authorities for their continued support in protecting the rights of luxury brand owners,” Penfolds managing director Tom King said.
Following its “longstanding battle” with Rush Rich, Treasury said it takes a “zero tolerance approach” to copyright breaches.
Anna Olsen, global director of intellectual property for Treasury Wine Estates, said in a statement: “Protecting the integrity of our historic brands against trademark piracy and misappropriation has always been a global priority.
“We’ll spare no effort to protect our brands and will pursue our rights to the highest courts where necessary.
“This case shows we won’t tolerate attempts to exploit and infringe the intellectual property rights and reputation of brands in the Treasury Wine Estates portfolio.”
Government regulator Wine Australia was also happy with the court case outcome as it has been working hard to maintain the international reputation of Australian wine.
The case is timely as Penfolds is looking to launch its wine in China.
In 2019, Rush Rich was also slammed with a massive fine in Australia’s Federal Court after being found to have infringed on several trademarks of Treasury Wine Estates.
The company had to pay $375,000 in compensation and was barred from using the images again.
Before the Australian Federal Court case, Treasury Wine Estates took Rush Rich to the Shanghai Pudong Court.
That court also ruled in favor of Treasury Wine Estates and ordered Rush Rich to pay back 2,000,000 Chinese yuan ($A426,000 at the time).
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