The trademark disputes between Budweiser Beer under Anheuser Busch dragged BaiWei sports shoes,  a Fujian-based sporting goods company into the judicial proceeding before at the Beijing No.1 Intermediate Court recently.

Defendant Dong Fanghong Sporting Company applied for "百威", "BaiWei" and 14 other marks as registered trademarks at the Trademark Office under the State Administration for Industry and Commerce (SAIC) from 1993 to 2009, for use in Class 25, the goods of clothing and shoes. Since 2002, Anheuser Busch challenged the later registered trademarks on multiple grounds.

After hearing the case, the court held that the trademarks in question are used in dancing dress and wedding dress products, the goods classes are evidently distinctive from those used on plaintiff’s products. However, the trademarks in question used on eight types of goods of bathing suit, shoes, hat, stockings constituted similarity in products function, marketing channel, targeting customer with the three reference marks. 

(China IP News)