A Dutch SME produces their additives in China under the name Roi Jaguar. Their General Manager in China is tasked with making sure that the brand is protected in accordance with Chinese law. At one point, the Chinese Gen

A Dutch SME produces their additives in China under the name Roi Jaguar. Their General Manager in China is tasked with making sure that the brand is protected in accordance with Chinese law. At one point, the Chinese General Manager leaves the company. Soon after he leaves, the Dutch SME discovers a very similar product on the Indian market called Roi Lynx. Both brands thus exist with the same word followed by the name of a species of big cat. After some research, the Dutch SME, finds out that after quitting the job, its former General Manager has started competing against it with very similar products. Also, after consulting the China IPR SME Helpdesk, the SME finds out that the former General Manager has registered the trademarks of the company in China in his own name instead of under the Dutch company in China. The situation escalates due to some other related outstanding issues for which the former General Manager still demands certain payments. The Dutch company refuses, so the former General Manager goes to the local Authority of Industry and Commerce (AIC) and shows them the trademark certificate of Roi Jaguar, which results in the AIC confiscating the infringing products of the Dutch SME that carry the name Roi Jaguar. As the Chinese trademark registration is in the name of the former General Manager, and the Dutch SME does not have the legal right to the name Roi Jaguar, the former General Manager legally closes down the business of the Dutch SME with regard to the brand Roi Jaguar. The trademark registration carried out by the former General Manager was done in bad-faith due to his existing relationship with the Dutch SME. The Dutch SME thus filed for a trademark cancellation as the trademark was registered in bad faith, and then subsequently applied for the trademark itself. After first having filed the trademark cancellation, which temporarily stopped infringement of the Roi Jaguar trademark, the Dutch SME continued to produce the product, but under a different product name. Before the new product name was used, the company checked that there were no conflicting trademarks that had already been registered in China, with regard to additives for that new name. The Dutch SME then registered the wordmark, logo and the Chinese character name of the new product. Once the cancellation was concluded and the trademark was applied for in the Dutch SME's name, the Dutch SME was able to put its products under the Roi Jaguar name back on the market. How was the former General Manager successful in legally closing down the business of the Dutch SME with regard to the brand Roi Jaguar in China ?