Muji, the Japanese retail behemoth, has lost yet another legal battle against a Beijing-based textile firm with an uncannily identical logo.
According to a court ruling released on Thursday, Muji owes Beijing Cottonfield Textile a total of 400,000 yuan ($62,530) in expenditures and economic damages after losing a case of commercial defamation brought by the business.
Muji Shanghai and its Japanese parent company Ryohin Keikaku were charged with defamation after publishing written notices in its online and offline stores alleging that “another firm” was “trademark squatting” on parts of Muji Shanghai’s trademark rights in China.
Cottonfield claimed that the phrase deceived the public by implying that its textile goods were counterfeit, despite the fact that the company had applied for the trademark half a decade before the Japanese brand entered the Chinese market in 2005.
Despite the fact that Muji did not specifically identify Cottonfield, Chief Justice Cui Shulei of the Chaoyang District People’s Court agreed. Muji’s tweets coincided with the company’s defeat of a prior lawsuit in which it had done so.
