Recently, an article titled "The Knowledgeable Know Why —— Hörmann KG Wins First Ruling in Infringement Case" has been spreading over the Internet. Therefore, we have received a lot of concerns and inquiries.
Here is how it happened ......
The Origin
One day, a colleague at the Sales Department received a customer inquiry call asking: “Is "Hangzhou Hörmann" a subsidiary of Hörmann KG? ......” This question quickly caught the attention of the Sales Department. Our investigation showed that there was indeed a company called "Hangzhou Hörmann" in the market that had been publicizing and selling in the name of "Hörmann", and even worse, some Hörmann customers mistook this company for a subsidiary of Hörmann and made procurements ......
We discovered the severity of the issue, and therefore filed a lawsuit with the Intermediate People's Court of Hangzhou City, Zhejiang Province.
The Course
Hörmann KG Verkaufsgesellschaft (Hörmann) was founded in 1935, entered into China in 1998 and enjoys high popularity in the door manufacturing industry and owns the trademark right to "Hörmann".
Investigation and evidence showed that: Hangzhou " Hörmann" Company was significantly involved in using marks similar to Hörmann’s registered trademark, and had been using misleading words in its external propaganda such as "German" and "European".
In accordance with relevant provisions in the "Trademark Law of the People's Republic of China" and "Law of the People's Republic of China on Anti-Unfair Competition", a judgment was made as follows:
The Verdict
In March 2019, the Intermediate People's Court of Hangzhou City, Zhejiang Province, supported Hörmann’s legal claim and made the following judgment:
I. The infringing company in Hangzhou must immediately cease its action of infringing Hörmann's exclusive right to use multiple registered trademarks;
II. The infringing company in Hangzhou must immediately stop its act of unfair competition through false advertising as of the date when this judgment became effective;
III. The infringing company in Hangzhou must immediately stop its act of using the "Hörmann" word in its company name as of the date when this judgment became effective.
The Ending
Not all brands can be called "Hörmann"!
The product being imitated this time was the fire-rated door. A fire-rated door that looks ordinary but that is actually very complicated, including filling of fireproof materials, thickness requirements for steel sheets and thermal resistance of window glass. ...... Each fire-rated door must meet the national standards (GB 12955-2008) certification. The fire endurance of fire-rated doors must be no less than 1.5 hours for Class A, 1 hour for Class B and 0.5 hour for Class C.
When a real fire comes, a good-quality fire-rated door can protect the safety of more lives and assets. Therefore, we cannot tolerate fake products!
The effort of safeguarding our legal rights at this time was not only intended to protect the legal interests of Hörmann, but more importantly we wanted to ensure the legitimate rights and interests of consumers by intimidating acts of maliciously inducing or falsely using trademarks through legal means, thus allowing more people to experience truly ingenious products.
Please access our information through the following channels:
Hörmann official WeChat: Hoermann-China
Hörmann official website: www.hoermann.cn