Australia’s wine giant Treasury Wine Estates has announced that is has won a legal case against Penfolds’ copycat wine brand Rush Rich in Australia.
This win came shortly after Penfolds has won a copyright case against the same company in Shanghai, China last month to protect its intellectual property rights, following over a year of legal battle since TWE launched the case in both Australia and China.
According to a report by Australian media outlet ABC, a Melbourne federal court has ordered Australian company Rush Rich to immediately cease production of wine with any mark “substantially identical with or deceptively similar to” Penfold’s Chinese branding.
Rush Rich has a winery production in Adelaide called R&R Winery, where it sourced bulk wines and bottled them under labels that resemble the look and feel of TWE’s flagship brand Penfolds.
Its name Rush Rich is a reverse translation of Penfolds’ Chinese name 奔富 or Benfu, meaning chasing prosperity. Its label designs mimics Penfolds’ Bin series as well.
The court also ordered Rush Rich to pay over AU$375,000 in compensation to Penfolds.
Speaking of the win, the Australian wine company commented: “This positive outcome affirms TWE’s leadership in protecting its IP rights against copycat and counterfeit operators,” it said in a statement.
“The company continues to invest strongly in this area through a dedicated brand protection team, which implements a comprehensive online and offline strategy and works closely with local authorities in Australia and China to enforce against bad faith operators.
“These proceedings should send a strong message to other copycat operators that their attempts to exploit and infringe TWE’s intellectual property rights and reputation will not be tolerated.”
Penfolds remains one of the most known wine brands in China, its mot valuable wine market. Consequently, it’s also one of the most faked wine brand.
In 2017, it successfully won a case against a brand squatter and secured its trademark rights over its transliterated Chinese name 奔富.
