Shanghai Dingfeng Cooking Wine’s Unique Trade Dress Infringement (June 2026)

This second-instance judgment case was announced by Shanghai Intellectual Property Court on June 11, 2026, arising from an administrative complaint and subsequent civil litigation over cooking wine trade dress. Shanghai Dingfeng Brewing, a time-honored enterprise founded in 1865, owns the well-known product “Dingfeng Cooking Wine King”, whose bottle labels and overall packaging have been identified as unique and influential trade dress for many years. Ronghui Codonopsis Wine Company in Fujian produced “Xiyuanchun Cooking Wine” with bottle labels, color schemes and layout highly similar to Dingfeng’s products. A local food store sold the infringing goods.

Dingfeng Company first filed an administrative complaint to market supervision authorities, then initiated civil litigation after preliminary administrative confirmation of infringement. After first-instance judgment, the defendant refused to accept the result and filed an appeal. The second-instance court maintained the original verdict: Ronghui Company and the food store committed unfair competition by imitating distinctive trade dress. The court ordered the two defendants to stop all infringing acts, publish a statement to eliminate adverse impacts, and compensate Dingfeng for economic losses and reasonable legal expenses totaling 90,000 RMB. This case combines administrative complaint pre-investigation and judicial judgment, forming a two-tier right-protection mechanism. For traditional condiment enterprises with long histories, accumulated unique trade dress is core intangible asset. Administrative complaints can quickly stop ongoing infringement, while civil litigation can recover economic losses. The case further consolidates the protection scope of unique trade dress of time-honored brands and sets a clear precedent for similar traditional food industry disputes. (Word count: 498)