Huawei wins big intellectual property case in Europe – against fashion house Chanel

Huawei has had a big intellectual property win in Europe, defeating an action brought by fashion house Chanel over a new logo it introduced in 2017. The Chinese company filed an application for the new logo in 2017 and described it as applicable to “Software and mobile applications to control and manage smart home devices and …

[David 132]

I have to agree with Huawei here. Uurgh, now I feel dirty.

What's Chanel's concern? That people will think they've branched out into smart home Internet-of-Tat gear? Nope. For once, I have to agree with Huawei, and the judges here. The two logos are just not likely to cause confusion.

OTOH, the first thing I thought when I saw the Huawei logo was that it looks like links of a chain. Subtly referencing the situation with the Uyghurs in Xinjiang?

[tfewster]

Re: I have to agree with Huawei here. Uurgh, now I feel dirty.

What does it say for Chanel's target market, that they might confuse a U for a C and try rubbing electronic kit into their skin?

[Shadow Systems]

At tfewster...

That's not what "Thermal Paste" is for, now put down the tube & step away from the porn. =-)p

[hoola]

Re: At tfewster...

But those tiny single use syringes that the paste comes in might have a use when empty......

[katrinab]

Re: I have to agree with Huawei here. Uurgh, now I feel dirty.

If the logo is on the lid of a tub of moisturiser, then you are not necessarily going to be looking at it in the correct orientation.

[sebacoustic]

U for a C

I see... we're talking roman numerals here! The Romans didn't have the letter U of course, using the V in its place. And here's where it all makes sense: the face cream is worth V dollars but Chanel sells it for C dollars!

[teknopaul]

Re: I have to agree with Huawei here. Uurgh, now I feel dirty.

but ze are french.

They cannot tell the difference between a V for "victory", and two fingers for "you can surrender now" .

[IGotOut]

Re: I have to agree with Huawei here. Uurgh, now I feel dirty.

@teknopaul.

Go learn some fucking history.

Battle of Verdun

French:

163,000 killed

216,000 wounded

In less than 10 months.

58,300 Killed

153,400 Wounded

18 years.

So which ones again are the surrender monkeys?

Oh you mean the French that defend the beaches so the British could escape?

Or do you mean the 85,000 British that surrendered after 5 days in Singapore?

Also if referring to WW2, you may want to look how long Denmark lasted.

[DS999]

They aren't worried about confusion

If you have a trademark, you must actively defend it or you can lose it. They probably don't care too much that they lost this case against Huawei, it shows anyone who tries to make something similar that they're going to come after them and have to fight in court to prove theirs is sufficiently different.

Now if Huawei started selling high fashion leather phone cases with the stylized 'H' printed all over it like Chanel purses, so that when someone was taking a photograph in landscape that it looked very much like a Chanel product, Chanel might come back at them and even possibly get a different result in court.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: They aren't worried about confusion

The article says that they've already worked the decision before, so they seem to care.

[Wade Burchette]

Re: I have to agree with Huawei here. Uurgh, now I feel dirty.

To be fair, both Huawei and Chanel are probably both employing over-worked and under-paid wage monkeys.

[_LC_]

Says it all

Says it all, when Western “intellectual property” is all colors and shapes, while the Chinese invent new technology instead.

---

T-Mobile says it owns exclusive rights to the color magenta

https://adage.com/article/digital/t-mobile-says-it-owns-exclusive-rights-color-magenta/2212556

---

Apple Sues Small Business With Pear Logo Because 'People Can Get Confused'

https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/354644

---

The global corporation Apple feels threatened - by a mother-and-child café in Bonn (Germany) that serves apple pie with cream and lots of stuffed animals. The café's apple logo looks familiar to the Californians.

https://www.sueddeutsche.de/wirtschaft/computerkonzern-verklagt-bonner-cafe-wehe-sie-veraeppeln-apples-apfel-1.1173840

They might want to check their eyesight.

[Headley_Grange]

Re: Says it all

I agree that many trademark cases seem daft, but one of the rules of trademark law is that you have to defend your trademark and if you don't then you risk losing it. Going to court should be the last straw; the lawyers' letter is the first step and often this is enough in terms of putting down a marker, even if you agree in the end to let the other party continue to use theirs.

[_LC_]

Re: Says it all

For sure. However, this should be done with a "certain degree of blurriness" and a sound sense of proportion. Otherwise, you only make enemies and bad publicity, because of your stupid lawyers. ;-)

[Sgt_Oddball]

Re: Says it all

And then you finally decide to enforce it, people can politely (and not so politely) point out that its already been somewhat watered down.

For reference, see the #FreeCuthbert hash tag trending on twitter... The Streisand effect in all its glory.

[Ramis101]

Re: Says it all

Sounds like Apple need to go on a jaunt to Barnard Castle

Too soon? I'll get my coat

[hoola]

Re: Says it all

But it is often inconsistent.

If I remember correctly Cadbury (or Mondelez now) tried to trademark the purple colour of Dairy Milk wrappers and it got thrown out.

Now forcing the content of said bars to actually look and taste like Cadbury's chocolate is another thing. It is horrendous now getting quite close to some Russian chocolate I came across in the 90s.

That was hard, brown fat and sugar.

[Cliffwilliams44]

Re: Says it all

Oh please, nothing is worse than America chocolate!

[_LC_]

Re: Says it all

We call that "brown sugar" and throw it into our tea. ;-)

[Anonymous Coward]

What's it going to look like..

.. when Chanel and Huawei ever have to collaborate?

I mean, Chanel et al are slowly running out of pseudo-scientific BS to sell their warez with, so eventually someone will come up with the idea of having Internet connected tubs.

I'm guessing the job won't go to Huawei now.

:)

[Chris G]

Re: What's it going to look like..

You could be on to something there!

Cosmetics As A Service, connected jars of snail trail or seaweed slime for your wrinkly bits, set to order a new jar of slop shortly before the current one bottoms out. Then it will automatically bill you for £X00....

[You aint sin me, roit]

Dihydrogen monoxide moisturiser...

... activated by 5G.

[Mike 137]

Quite apart from which...

In general, trade mark registration is for a specific category of activity. It's perfectly legitimate for two businesses with different activity types to register similar trademarks because the criterion is avoidance of customer confusion. So a company manufacturing nautical speedometers and a company selling rustic doors could in principle both legitimately register "excellent knots" as their trade mark. It looks like this "intellectual property" dispute maybe goes beyond trade mark law into some vague nether region.

[myhandler]

Re: Quite apart from which...

Yeah but long long aog this led to a dispute between the fledgling Apple Computers and the Beatles Apple Music Corp.

"Oh no, we won't ever get into music" said Apple

[WolfFan]

Re: Quite apart from which...

And when Apple did get into music, one of their sound effects on Macs was Sosuemi…

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Quite apart from which...

That sound was already in OS9, though, which wasn't very musical..

[spireite]

Networking issues.....

I can see why they are concerned to be honest......

I have to switch my router from Chanel 11 to Chanel 3 occasionally.....

[MiguelC]

Re: Networking issues.....

You should always use Chanel n 5 and nothing else

[Nige]

Under Armour beware!

https://www.underarmour.co.uk/en-gb/

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Under Armour beware!

Wow, they clearly do not want anyone making the mistake of buying anything from their site.

Cookie menu without an opt out, and then about 3 popups before you get to the site. I need to check my browser, I thought I banned popups on account of being IMHO on a par with blinking text from a "ways to irritate an end user" perspective.

But hey, it was worth seeing for a moment what I normally either abandon or block.

[Tim Kemp]

"But fashion house Chanel found it offensive because it resembles its own logo, depicted below on a tub of moisturiser that inexplicably costs around $100."

At 25 quid for an 8ml ink cartridge from many printer manufacturers, I wonder where they learned that from?

[Anonymous Coward]

Rounded Corners....

"In particular, Chanel’s marks have more rounded curves, thicker lines and a horizontal orientation,"

Oh dear, they seem to have opened a tub of worms.....

[big_D]

Chanel...

has a logo? Well, at least I know now, thanks Huawei.

[Aristotles slow and dimwitted horse]

"Oi, big nose..."

"Oh... it's 'blessed are the meek'. I'm glad they're getting something, they have a hell of a time..."

[Doctor Syntax]

" a tub of moisturiser that inexplicably costs around $100."

Nothing inexplicable. The target market wouldn't buy anything at a price anywhere near cost of production plus reasonable mark-up. It would would damage their self-image. The value is based on the price, not the other way around.

[Anonymous Coward]

Yeah I was thinking that when I saw the Hermes AirTag strap. It is a tiny piece of emobossed leather.

If you need to show others you have money, you have little choice by to spend a lot of it on the most worthless things.

[Anonymous Coward]

That's how you can tell someone (nouvelle/self made) rich from the really (usually inherited) rich. The latter do not have this need to show off. Sure, you will get subtle hints by their choices, but in general they're comfortable with their wealth.

For them, the topic of money is generally a tad boring and an accounting or family office issue - they're far more interested in what you can do with it.

As for Hermès, I know some Parisiennes who would choose them over anything from LVMH but I have no idea why. I'll ask them next time I come across them :).

[Franco]

Hmmmm. Both of those logos look like excessively curved bananas, which is a fruit, so Apple will probably be suing them both before long, on the grounds that Chanel selling stuff at a huge markup because of their brand is their exclusive territory.

[The commentard formerly known as Mister_C]

I have no difficulty telling them apart....

WhoAreWe have based their logo on celtic knotwork with quite clear breaks where each curve goes under the other.

Chanel have based their logo on a partly drawn Venn diagram. Both circles represent populations running from "very little" on the left to "very much" on the right.

Left hand circle is "wealth". Right hand circle is "intelligence". Intersection is their target market i.e. "more money than sense".

Simples.

[martinusher]

Not a smart move on Chanel's part

Huawei isn't just a large, global, technology company. Its also now a symbol of China's emergence as a global leader thanks to the attacks on it by the US government and its 'allies'. The Chinese are acutely aware of this and a lot of them are Chanel customers so its quite likely that if this dispute isn't resolved quietly and quickly then its likely to backfire to Chanel's detriment. I believe Apple's sales have suffered a glitch recently due to this effect and Apple despite Apple trying its best to distance itself from the US government's actions -- for better or worse Apple is a symbol of "America", a place that used to be admired but could quickly become reviled.

I read recently somewhere the idea that the biggest threat to civilization is 'first order thinking' -- not thinking through the consequences of one's actions but just reacting blindly to events. Chanel needs to wise up quickly.