Recently, Hunan Provincial Higher People''s Court made the final decision on the case in which Adidas-Salamon AG (Adidas) sued Shanghai An'dao Sports Goods Co., Ltd. (An'dao) and Shanghai An''dao Shoes Development Limited (An'dao Shoes) for trademark infringement and unfair competition.

The court ruled that An'dao and An'dao Shoes should compensate RMB 250,000 yuan to Adidas jointly or severally.Adidas, which is a well-known sports goods manufacturer, registered trademark ADIDAS in Germany in 1948, and enjoys exclusive rights to use trademarks ADIDAS and 阿迪达斯 in China. In 2004, USA ADIDAS INTERNATIONAL GROUP LLC, which was registered and incorporated in Delaware USA in August 2003, licensed Shanghai An'dao and An'dao Shoes to use its trademark ACCEPTER. And the two licensees marked ''Authorized by USA ADIDAS INTERNATIONAL GROUP LLC'' (in Chinese) on their proposed sportswear, shoes and packaging thereof. In 2005, Liu, a retailer in Changsha of Hunan Province, was authorized to sell the aforementioned sneakers in his store, where the words ''USA ADIDAS'' were conspicuously shown on the signboard as per the request of An'dao Shoes.

Adidas then instituted a proceeding against An'dao and Liu with Changsha Municipal Intermediate People's Court. In reaction, Liu immediately stopped selling the infringing sports goods and reached amicable settlement with the plaintiff in September 2006. The Court held that An'dao Shoes Company should be added as the third party as it was an interested party in the lawsuit, thus ordered An'dao and An'dao Shoes to compensate RMB 400,000 yuan for their infringement and unfair competition action jointly and severally. An'dao refused to accept the judgment and brought an appeal to Hunan Provincial Higher People's Court. 

After hearing the case, the Court held that two defendants took the advantage of the reputation of well-known trademark Adidas, thus constituted unfair competition action. The Court ordered the An'dao and An'dao Shoes to cease infringement immediately and pay Adidas RMB 250,000 yuan for compensation jointly or severally.Attorneys representing the plaintiff in the first and second instance were Dr. HUANG Hui and Mr. HUANG Yibiao, Lawyers of Wan Hui Da Law Firm.