Pepsi, Nike Win Domain Disputes in Beijing

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Friday, December 07, 2001

Pepsi, Nike Win Domain Disputes in Beijing

The No.1 People's Intermediate Court in Beijing, China's capital, Thursday ordered a Guangzhou-based company to pay compensation to the two international giants Pepsi and Nike companies for its bad-intentions and unfair activities in the domain disputes.

The two well-known foreign companies sued the defendant, the Guangzhou Yuejing Information Co., Ltd., for its illicit use of their names to register the domains of "pepsi.com.cn" and "nike.com.cn".

The court decided that though the Chinese company had not infringed the monopoly rights of the two companies' trade marks, its registration of the domains was wrongful as Pepsi and Nike arefamous names.

The Guangzhou-based firm, which did attend the court proceeding,was ordered to relinquish "pepsi.com.cn", apologize and pay 5,060 yuan tin in court costs to PepsiCo Inc..

The company was also ordered to pay 5,000 yuan to the world's top shoe maker Nike to cover its court costs.

Since the defendant did not appear the Beijing-based courtwillask a Guangzhou court to pass the sentence.

New Regulation on Domain-Name Disputes Expected