新百伦在华打赢商标侵权诉讼
新百伦(New Balance)表示，中国一家法院命令三家被告支付高达150万美元的损害赔偿金，因为它们抄袭了该美国鞋类品牌的斜体“N”标识。这是一场罕见的商标案胜利。
A court in the eastern city of Suzhou ruled last week that the defendants had infringed New Balance’s “unique decoration rights”, and ordered them to stop producing or selling shoes with variations of the logo.
华东城市苏州的一个法院上周裁定这些被告侵犯了新百伦独特的装饰权，并勒令它们停止生产或销售使用上述标识变体的鞋类。
One of the defendants was a company known in English as New Boom, according to the state-run China Intellectual Property Magazine, which first reported the verdict on Monday.
根据周一率先报道这一裁决结果的国营的《中国知识产权杂志》，其中一家被告的英文公司名为New Boom。
The ruling comes as the US pressures Beijing to take more action on suspected intellectual property theft by Chinese companies, though administration officials have complained more about enforced technology transfer arrangements than trademark infringements.
这项裁决出炉之际，美国正施压北京对中国企业疑似窃取知识产权的行为采取更多行动，尽管相比商标侵权，特朗普政府官员抱怨更多的是强制性的技术转让安排。
Last year former basketball player Michael Jordan successfully stopped a Chinese sportswear company from using a translation of his surname on their apparel, in what was seen as a landmark verdict because it overturned the general precedent in China that whoever registers a trademark first has a right to it.
去年，前篮球运动员迈克尔•乔丹(Michael Jordan)成功阻止了一家中国运动服装企业在其服装上使用他的姓氏的中文翻译，该案被视为一项里程碑式的裁决，因为它推翻了中国的一般先例，即最先注册商标的人拥有商标权。
Previously, companies from Apple to Heineken had lost trademark battles in China over the issue. Apple was forced in 2012 to pay $60m to a local company that had registered the iPad name after a court rejected the US tech group’s right to the trademark.
以往，从苹果(Apple)到喜力啤酒(Heineken)的多家西方公司在这个问题上输掉在中国的商标战。苹果曾在2012年被迫向一家抢先注册了iPad名称的本土企业支付6000万美元，此前中国法庭拒绝承认这家美国科技集团的商标权。
The New Balance verdict differed from Mr Jordan’s case because it related to rights to a logo rather than a name, and was made under Chinese anti-competition law which mandates protection for product decoration if it is unique and well-known.
新百伦的裁决与乔丹案的不同之处在于，它涉及一个公司标识，而不是名字，而且该裁决是根据中国的反不正当竞争法做出的;该法要求保护独特且知名的产品装饰。
Angel Shi from New Balance said foreign brands owners in China face “increasingly aggressive look-like infringements on a scale we don’t see in other major markets” and that winning the case “has given us confidence to adapt to a more proactive brand protection strategy in China”.
新百伦的Angel Shi表示，境外品牌拥有者在中国面临“越来越肆无忌惮的外观侵权，其规模是我们在其它主要市场闻所未闻的”，该案的胜诉“使我们有信心在中国执行一种更为主动积极的品牌保护战略”。
The verdict does not extend to trainer companies with similar names: New Balance lost a case against Chinese sports shoe company New Barlun last year, when a court ruled there was no trademark infringement by the Chinese company. The US company was forced to pay a fine of Rmb5m ($750,000).
这项裁决并不延伸至名称相似的运动鞋企业：去年，新百伦在针对中国运动鞋公司纽巴仑(New Barlun)的诉讼中败诉，法庭裁决认定，这家中国企业并未侵犯商标权。新百伦被迫支付500万元人民币(合75万美元)的罚款。
China is the world’s second-largest sportswear market. Overseas brands such as Nike and Adidas have been increasing sales by double digits in recent quarters as more Chinese people take up running and other sports.
中国是世界第二大运动服装市场。随着越来越多的中国人开始从事跑步和其他运动，耐克(Nike)和阿迪达斯(Adidas)等海外品牌在最近几个季度实现了两位数的销售增长。
New Balance had 1.8 per cent of the Chinese footwear market in 2016, up from 0.4 per cent in 2011, trailing Nike and Adidas who had 7.8 and 7 per cent respectively, according to consultancy Euromonitor.
据咨询公司欧睿(Euromonitor)介绍，新百伦在2016年拥有中国鞋类市场1.8%的份额，高于2011年的0.4%，但比不上耐克(7.8%)和阿迪达斯(7%)。
