Slayer and Cimbali win “significant” lawsuit in China

The Seattle Espresso Machine Corporation has won an unfair competition lawsuit in China regarding a Slayer Espresso model.

Under parent company Cimbali Group, the Seattle Espresso Machine Corporation won the unfair competition lawsuit, resulting in four Chinese companies being sanctioned by a Shanghai Court of First Instance.

The Chinese civil court recognised that the four companies were producing and marketing coffee machines that closely resembled the Slayer Espresso model, with distinctive design and packaging elements replicated on the machines.

The company claimed this led to consumer confusion between the original Slayer Espresso coffee machine and the one produced and marketed by the counterfeit Chinese companies, creating an unfair competitive advantage to the detriment of Cimbali Group.

The Shanghai judges recognised the design of the Slayer coffee machine as “influential” under Article 6 of China’s Unfair Competition Law. The four Chinese companies were immediately ordered to the production and marketing of machines as well as pay damages and legal fees.

In China, cases in which a foreign company succeeds in obtaining a favourable ruling against unfair competition from Chinese companies are said to be extremely rare. Although this is a first-instance ruling subject to appeal, the decision of the Shanghai Court is said to be significant given the complexity of the Chinese legal context.

Cimbali Group believes the recognition of legal protection for a business-to-business product is the first, and currently the only, successful case in the coffee equipment sector, which has seen several instances of counterfeiting in recent years.