The Beijing Second Intermediate People's Court recently made three civil judgments for a highly-publicized litigation, Formula One Management (FOM) suing multiple fashion companies and shops in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou for trademark infringement.  The Court held that the eight defendants should cease infringement of the registered trademarks F1 & Formula 1 (G641610) and pay an aggregated damage of 144,000 RMB.

FOM, holder of several famous marks, is specifically established for managing IPRs for the FIA Formula 1 (F1) Championship.  FOM began registering F1 and relevant trademarks globally in 1984.  It has yet registered or applied for 170 trademarks in China.

From 2004, as the dealers of F1 jeans, Defendants Shanghai Huashuo Fashion Company and two other companies fixed the symbol F1 in a visible manner on their promotional materials, garment tags and shopping bags, or dubbing its garments as F1 or F One without the plaintiff's authorization.  Their sales of garments bearing F1 were deemed infringement of the trademark proprietorship of the plaintiff.