Website in trademark infringement dispute

When a used car platform recently sued a free website for classified ads for trademark infringement by misdirecting readers to a second website, the two ended up in a lengthy, heated debate.

The used-car trader, Youxin, accused the 58-Same-City network — which provides classified-ad services in the used-car and other businesses in local communities or cities all across China — of sneakily linking its website with Youxin’s so that whenever a person typed Youxin into their search engine, they would automatically be sent to 58-Same-City.

Youxin’s legal representative said that 58-Same-City’s homepage clearly displays the “Youxin second-hand car” label which could mislead people into thinking that Youxin is a part of the 58-Same-City network and that, since that Youxin is a famous brand in the used-car business, 58-same-city was using its fame for profit by stealing its potential customers.

The 58-Same-City network representative responded by saying that it is a well-known platform covering all aspects of life in China, with a wider sales and customer network than Youxin’s used-car market and that it has a greater reputation, so it has no need or motivation to try to take advantage of the Youxin name.

He went on to say that Youxin had filed the lawsuit because they wanted to play themselves up while riding on the other website’s fame and, moreover, to make their brand more famous and increase profits, and that they used “City network” as a key search word to ensure that they ranked higher than rival companies.

He then added that the Youxin brand had, in fact, been registered by another company, the Shanghai Information Technology Corp, on Dec 14, 2012 and that 58-Same-City got the rights to it for the Jan 1, 2016 - Dec 13 2020 period.

He concluded by saying that 58-Same-City used the “Youxin” label as a search key and put it on its used-car homepage and that this was completely legitimate and within its rights.