A mainland court will next week hear an appeal by Hong Kong fashion chain G2000 for the right to manufacture and sell fashion accessories on the mainland under its own label, a judge said yesterday.
The Zhejiang Higher People's Court would hear G2000's appeal next Tuesday against an earlier ruling that it had infringed the registered trademark of a Hangzhou businessman, said the judge overseeing the appeal, Zhou Gencai .
Speaking at a press conference on the court's protection of intellectual property rights, Mr Zhou called the G2000 case 'exceptionally complicated'.
Late last year, the Hangzhou Intermediate People's Court ordered G2000 Group, owned by former Kowloon-Canton Railway Corporation chairman Michael Tien Puk-sun, to stop manufacturing and selling fashion accessories under the G2000 brand on the mainland.
The Hangzhou court also ordered G2000 to pay 20 million yuan (HK$22.28 million) to Hangzhou businessman Zhao Hua for infringing the latter's registered trademark, 2000.
The compensation was the largest ever ordered by the Hangzhou court. A court spokeswoman described the case as 'a battle between an ant and an elephant'.
The verdict has yet to be implemented because G2000 filed an appeal to the Zhejiang court.