Mitsubishi Electric wins TM suit against Chinese counterfeiters

Tokyo-based Mitsubishi Electric has secured victory against three factory-automation product counterfeiters in Guangzhou, China in a trademark infringement dispute.

Today, September 15, Mitsubishi announced that the Guangzhou Intellectual Property Court in China had upheld an earlier ruling in its favour, finding that Guangzhou Lingye Automation Equipment, Guangzhou Longyan Automation Technology, Guangzhou Ouye Automation Technology and their owners had infringed three of Mitsubishi’s trademarks.

The defendants allegedly manufactured and sold a large quantity of counterfeit factory-automation equipment, including inverters and programmable logic controllers.

According to Mitsubishi, the infringement began in 2012 and, in May 2016, the defendants were convicted of illegally manufacturing and selling these products.

After the conviction, Mitsubishi Electric sued the defendants for trademark infringement of Mitsubishi in Japanese characters, ‘Mitsubishi’ and the Mitsubishi logo.

As part of the ruling, the defendants must pay RMB2.66 million ($392,012) in damages and issue a public statement in which they admit their wrongdoing and apologise for the harm they caused by producing counterfeit products.

“Mitsubishi Electric will continue to take strict measures against producers of counterfeit products through the detection, and application of legal measures to protect its brand value, so that customers may continue to use its products with peace of mind,” said a statement from the company.

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