Danone filed its first lawsuit against Wahaha on May 9 in Stockholm, and on June 4, Danone filed another lawsuit, in Los Angeles, against two Wahaha-related companies and two individuals.

Also in June, Wahaha filed a request with the arbitration commission in the eastern Chinese city of Hangzhou over a disputed trademark transfer.

It also lodged suits in Shenyang and Jilin against Danone executives Emmanuel Faber, who replaced Zong Qinghou as chief of Danone and Wahaha's 39 joint ventures, and Qin Peng, China director for Danone Asia and Francois Caquelin, a financial director, claiming they had breached company law or damaged the interests of the Danone-Wahaha joint venture.

ln July, Danone filed a counterclaim against Wahaha, alleging that Wahaha had failed to transfer trademarks to their joint venture under an agreement reached in 1996 when their cooperation started.

Danone and Wahaha negotiated for another round before French President Nicolas Sarkozy visited China late November last year. The talks, however, were fruitless.

Thanks to mediation efforts of China's Ministry of Commerce, Wahaha and Danone announced on Dec. 21 last year that they would end confrontation and return to peace negotiation.

(Xinhua News Agency March 10, 2008)