Court Asks Oak Pacific Interactive To Stop Using The Social Media Name “Kaixin”

Beijing Second Intermediate People’s Court has announced its decision for Kaixin001.com’s lawsuit against Oak Pacific Interactive, which previously launched a similar social networking site as that of Kaixin001.com, asking the latter to stop using the Chinese name of “Kai Xin Wang” and pay compensation of CNY400,000 to the complainant.

According to local media reports, in May 2009 the Chinese social media website Kaixin001.com raised a lawsuit against Oak Pacific Interactive for unfair competition, because the latter launched Kaixin.com, a similar website as that of Kaixin001.com. Kaixin.com also used the Chinese name of “Kai Xin Wang”, which is the same as that of Kaixin001.com.

Kaixin001.com said in its indictment that Kaixin.com’s Chinese name, the major part of its domain name, its functions, service targets, and contents are basically the same as those of Kaixin001.com. In addition, the style of its front page is similar with that of Kaixin001.com. All of these deeds have constituted an unfair competition scenario.

In regards to this lawsuit, Beijing Second Intermediate People’s Court has recently announced its decision. The court stated that Oak Pacific Interactive did not infringe the registered trademark of Kaixin001.com, but it uses the same Chinese name as Kaixin001.com, therefore constituting unfair competition. The court asked the defendant to stop the use of the name of “Kai Xin Wang” or any other similar names, and Oak Pacific Interactive needs to pay a compensation of CNY400,000 to Kaixin001.com.

Commenting on the decision, Oak Pacific Interactive said it will appeal.