The China National Intellectual Property Administration
("CNIPA") dealt two heavy blows to Facebook in February
and March of this year. Not only did the CNIPA deny
Facebook's request to invalidate a prior registration for
FACEBOOK by Dr. Su Kaiming, a medical doctor and trademark squatter
who had filed for other third-party well-known marks, it also
invalidated Facebook's own registrations, marking the end of a
14-year battle.
In May 2006, Dr. Su filed an application for FACEBOOK covering
computer software and web services in Class 42. Facebook
filed its own Class 42 application for FACEBOOK in 2007, about the
time that Facebook was entering the Chinese market, and opposed Dr.
Su's application. As Facebook did not own a prior Chinese
registration or application for its mark, its grounds for
challenging Dr. Su's application were limited to fame and
reputation and Dr. Su's bad faith.
