The sportswear giant Adidas launched a lawsuit against three Chinese companies for intellectual property rights violation and seeks 3 million yuan (US$370,000) in compensation.

The Beijing No 1 Intermediate People's Court held a hearing on the case yesterday.

Adidas International BV accused the Fujian-based Aile Clothing and Shoe Company of using a design very much like that of the three-stripe Adidas trademarked logo.

The plaintiff found the logo on Aile products, mainly sports shoes and clothing, as well as its promotion materials, in a Beijing market in December 2002, said Huang Hui, an attorney for the Adidas.

"The logo of the Aile company can be seen as a combination of the trademarked logos of Adidas and Nike," said Huang.

Aile's actions have violated the registered trademark rights of Adidas, said Huang.

"It misleads consumers by using a design similar to Adidas's logo so as to make high profits," said Huang.

He noted that such practice infringes upon the trademark-using rights of Adidas and constitutes unfair competition.

While the other two Chinese companies known as the Beijing Jianlijia Aile Sports Goods Shop and the Beijing Ruiguan Sports Goods Company were accused by Adidas of selling Aile products sporting the offending logos.

The Aile company's lawyer was not available for comment yesterday.

The Beijing Jianlijia shop, which was set up in August 2002 to sell products of the Aile company, did argue in its defence materials that:

"The products manufactured by the company with the trademark of 'Aile' have been widely accepted by consumers and enjoy a very high reputation."

The so-called " similar sign" to Adidas', known as "Aile Jitu," was used only on a limited number of sneakers in the Beijing market.

"As a big company enjoying fame for high-quality products, it is unnecessary for Aile to use a similar logo to Adidas to increase its influence and make inappropriate profits," said the Jianlijia shop.

It also said Adidas does not have enough evidence to support its 3 million yuan (US$370,000) compensation claim.

The court did not make any ruling yesterday.

World famous brands are easy prey to intellectual property rights (IPR) violations, said an expert from an IPR agency, who declined to be identified.

But in many cases, producers were usually found to be using the pirated trademarks of world famous brands. The Chinese Government has intensified its efforts to fight such practices.

"But this case is different because it does not use the same logo as Adidas, and it is hard to say whether Adidas can win the case or not," said the expert.

(China Daily August 30, 2005)