In a recent conclusion of the infringement dispute between Baidu Company and Jingbaidu Catering Company, Beijing Intellectual Property Court ruled that Jingbaidu Catering Company and other five companies shall bear the treble damage and compensate more than 2.3 million yuan to the plaintiff.

Jingbaidu and its No.1, No.3, No.7 and No.8 branches use a large number of logos, such as "Baidu", "Baidu Barbecue" and "Baidu Sugar" on the name of its store, decoration, advertising, WeChat official account and Meituan App. Baidu Company sued Jingbaidu and its branches, requesting to stop the infringement, change the name of the enterprise and compensate 5 million yuan for its economic losses. 

The court held that the accused behavior of the five companies has sabotaged the direct and close connection between the trademark of Baidu and its search engine service, and had weakened the significance of Baidu trademark, which falls in the cases of "sufficient to make the relevant public think that the trademark in dispute is related to the well-known trademark to a considerable extent, while weakening the significance of well-known trademarks" and "improperly using the market reputation of well-known trademarks " as stipulated in Article 9.2 of the Interpretation of the Supreme People's Court on Several Issues Concerning the Application of Laws in the Trial of Civil Disputes Involving the Protection of Well-known Trademarks. 

Financial account books, tax returns and other evidence provided by the five companies revealed that the average annual operating profit of the five companies during the infringement period exceeded 300,000 yuan. The infringement of the five companies lasted for more than five years, while taking into account the significance and popularity of the involved trademarks, and the infringement circumstances of the five companies, as well as the illegal profits and the damage caused to Baidu Company, the court estimated that  Baidu's trademark had contributed to more than 35% of the infringement profits of the five companies, making it applicable for the treble damage. The court made the final ruling and ordered the five companies to compensate Baidu for economic losses and reasonable expenses totaling more than 2.3 million yuan.