Cases

Hylands Obtains a Favorable Ruling in the China International Economic and Trade Arbitration Commission on Behalf of a Brokerage Company

2019-01-14


Recently, the second trial of a contract dispute over endorsement between the Studio of a well-known female actress and a domestic Jewelry Company was sentenced, and the Beijing Intellectual Property Court finally ruled that the Jewelry Company should pay the Studio a penalty of millions of yuan.

Hylands was entrusted by the Studio to act as its agent in the first and second instance proceedings of the case.  The case was initiated because the Jewelry Company did not dismantle and stop using the advertising materials containing the actress’ portrait and name after the expiration of the endorsement contract, which constituted a breach of contract.  The main dispute of this case was about the penalty amount of liquidated damages corresponding to the Jewelry Company’s breach of contract.

The court of the first instance held that the liquidated damages should be mainly compensatory and the number of liquidated damages should be reduced.  Hylands continued to appeal acting on behalf of the Studio.  The court of the second instance finally concluded that if the number of expenses incurred in breach of the contract was less than the amount paid in compliance with the contract, it would be an encouragement to the breach of contract.  Therefore, the court fully supported the litigation request for payment of liquidated damages in the Studio’s appeal of the second instance (the amount of compensation of the modified judgment was more than three times the amount of compensation for the first instance).

The legal service team of Hylands, in this case, was led by the partner and attorney Han ZHOU, and the agents were the partner and attorney Wenjie JIANG and attorney He GAO.