Clash of the Titans: TutorABC battles Kojen in court over logo

泰坦之戰 ：TutorABC怒告科見美語商標侵權

TutorABC dukes it out against Kojen English for infringement of logo

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) -- Introducing first, fighting out of the blue corner is TutorABC, the largest online English teaching company in Taiwan.?And now, fighting out of the red corner is?Kojen English (科見美語), one of the largest English cram schools in Taiwan.

The two combatants are trading blows?in the second round of a ferocious battle over trademark infringement of an O-shaped logo wearing eadphones.??

After executives at TutorABC noticed that Kojen?started to use a logo on its website strikingly similar to its trademark logo with a black letter O wearing a headset?on the right side on a white background. The Kojen?logo also has a black letter O on a white background, but instead of a headset on the right side, there are two headphones on either side of the "O,"?reported Apple Daily.

TutorABC?first filed a civil suit against Kojen?over the logo and won. However, Kojen?continued to display the logo, prompting TutoABC to angrily accuse its chairman Hou Kuang-chieh?(侯光杰) of trademark infringement in Taipei District Court, starting a second suit which is currently underway.?

Hou claimed that he had consulted trademark professionals who said that there was no infringement of intellectual property rights, but after losing the civil case he nevertheless?directed his schools to take down the offending logo, but "perhaps some had not been completely removed, thus causing a misunderstanding." Prosecutors did not buy his explanation and said that Kojen is in violation of Article 95 of the Trademark Act.?

Since its inception in 1982, Kojen?English has built 30 schools across Taiwan, while its online English teaching rival, TutorABC, was launched in 2004 and has so far served 2.4 million customers through its virtual classes. As the two companies fiercely compete?for the same customers, the two have already battled it out in court on numerous occasions over teaching material and trademark disputes.?