In Nov. of 2007, Beijing No.1 Intermediate People's Court rendered a judgment to grant Ferrero, an Italian chocolate brand, extended territorial protection of its three-dimensional mark.

On Dec.3, 2001, Ferrero (Italy) filed for the first time an application for trademark registration on its "three-dimensional mark", and the application was approved on May 23, 2002 with Ferrero as the right holder. The trademark was to be used on Ferrero's chocolate product of chocolate. On Sep. 28, 2002, Ferreror filed an application in China, through the International Bureau of the World Intellectual Property Organization, for the extended territorial protection of the said trademark.

The Trademark Review and Adjudication Board ("TRAB") found that the trademark in the application, a three-dimensional mark, only referred to the commonly used package of commodities on which the trademark was used, while a lacked the distinctive characteristics of a trademark. Thus it could hardly serve to tell the source of the commodity. Correspondingly, the TRAB issued the Review Decision on Rejection of the International Registration No. 783985 "Three-Dimensional Mark". Subsequently, Ferrero filed a lawsuit against the TRAB.

Beijing No. 1 Intermediate People's Court held upon hearing that both the color and the package of the commodities provided under the applied trademark are neither the normal choices in the same occupation, nor those of the package of commodities on which the trademark is used. Therefore the creative conception of the applied trademark has given it the distinctive characteristics a trademark should have. As a result, the Court reversed the review decision on rejection of the trademark made by the TRAB. Ferrero's trademark thus became the first three-dimensional mark approved through litigation in China.

                                                                                               (Translated by Li Yan)