In 2016 a new brand, Uncle Martian, was anounced in Jinjiang, Fujian Province, China.
This new brand, however, is found to be extremely similar to a famous sportswear brand Under Amour. There is remarkable resemblance between not only the patterns but also the names.
The company behind Uncle Martian is Tingfei Long Sporting Goods Co. (廷飞龙体育用品有限公司). This company, also well-known for its copy of New Balance, is based in southern China's Fujian province. Fujian province is famous for its fake sneakers manufacturing industry.
According to the database at CTMO, the name “UNDER ARMOUR” as well as its logo were registered by Under Armour at CTMO in 2005 while the name “Uncle Martian” was registered by a Chinese person in 2007. However, there is no application of Uncle Martian’s logo in the database.The common pronunciation translation of Under Armour, “安德玛(an de ma）”was registered by the chairman of “Uncle Martian”, so that Under Armour was only allowed to register under the Chinese name “安德阿镆 (an de a mo).”
Under Armour claimed that Under Armour is aware of the Uncle Martian launch event. And they made a statement that Uncle Martian’s uses of Under Armour’s famous logo, name, and other intellectual property are a serious concern and blatant infringement. Under Armour will vigorously pursue all business and legal courses of action.
A spokesman for Uncle Martian asserted that the brand has “nothing to do with” Under Armour. “We haven’t heard from Under Armour yet. They haven’t contacted us about anything,” said Zheng Maoxin, head of the marketing department for Uncle Martian’s parent company, Fujian Tingfeilong Sports Good Co. According to latest news, the court decided that Uncle Martian must destroy all the infringing products, compensate Under Armour with $300 000 (about 2 million RMB) and make a public statement to apologize for the negative impact caused by the infringement.
Meanwhile, the other component of the Uncle Martian logo, the laurel wreath around the almost-interlocking letters, is an equally blatant ripoff of the Fred Perry logo. Whether there will be a further decision in this case remains to be seen.
Being infringed trademarks is quite common in China, especially for those famous brand. But what you should still remember is that China is a first to file country and this means (with very few exceptions) that whoever files for a trademark first gets it.
Therefore, we highly recommend you to register your trademark in China early, included English name, Chinese name, Chinese pinyin name and logo and trying to cover classes as much as possible is quite important. What’s more, you should also attach importance on the management of your trademark and never give up utilizing legal means to deal with the infringement upon your trademark.