The Use of the Label "Vaseline" Is Under Regulation

Recently, according to an administrative punishment notice issued by the Guangzhou Administration for Market Regulation(GAMR), a cosmetics company in Guangzhou was fined 50,000 RMB($7455) yuan for using the word “Vaseline” in its product name.  

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As CHAILEEDO learned, on May 20th, 2022, the GAMR found that Guangzhou Zhuanghuang Cosmetics Co., LTD(hereinafter, the Guangzhou Zhuanghuang) was suspected of producing cosmetics that violated the exclusive right of “Vaseline” registered trademark, and filed a case for investigation according to law.

According to the online public information, in November and December 2021, January and May 2022, the Guangzhou Zhuanghuang successively produced several bottles of White Dolphin Vaseline Nourishing Moisturizing Cream and Katina Vaseline Nicotinamide Nourishing Moisturizing Cream with the trademark of “Vaseline”, and has sold some products with a total sales amount of $2301.8.

The GAMR said that the “Vaseline” trademark used by the Guangzhou Zhuanghuang has been approved and registered by the State Trademark Office, granted the Trademark Registration Certificate No. 2023551. The registrant is Unilever(China) Co., LTD, which enjoys the exclusive right to use the trademark under the protection of laws. On the basis of the information from China Trademark Network, Unilever obtained the ownership of the third-class international trademark of “Vaseline” on October 28th, 2004.

In accordance with the punishment decision, the above-mentioned behaviors of Guangzhou Zhuanghuang constituted a violation of the exclusive right to use the registered trademark within the provisions of Article 57(1) of China‘s Trademark Law that without the permission of the trademark registrant, use the same trademark as its registered trademark on the same products. In addition, as the relevant provisions of the second paragraph of Article 60 of China’s Trademark Law showed, Guangzhou Zhuanghuang was ordered to immediately quit trademark infringement, confiscate and destroy the products involved, and be imposed a fine of $7519.9.

CHAILEEDO inquired on the filing information platform of domestic general cosmetics of the National Medical Products Administration and learned that the White Dolphin and Katina were filed on December 5th, 2022 and October 25th, 2021 respectively, of which both the product filer and the manufacturer were Guangzhou Zhuanghuang. It is reported that the company has also filed products of several other brands.

According to the product packaging plan in the filing information, the words “Vaseline” on the packaging of the two involved are relatively prominent. For example, the font size of “Vaseline” on the product package is significantly larger than its trade name White Dolphin; while on that of Katina, the word “Vaseline” is also more prominent, and the package of the product is also printed with the word VASELINE.

What’s more, CHAILEEDO learned that the third-class cosmetics trademark of VASELINE also belongs to Unilever. As the information on China Trademark Network showed, Unilever applied for that as early as 1980 and got the registration. Since then, similar groups of this trademark have been expanded many times.

In this regard, Deng Gang, a lawyer of Guangdong Legal Shengbang law firm, said that we should not judge the trademark infringement only by relying on the word “Vaseline” on the package, but through comprehensive identification. Among them, the most critical point is whether its products will confuse consumers.

Deng Gang also said, “If the word “Vaseline” on the product packaging of other brands is more prominent than the words of their brand name or logo, which makes people mistakenly take them as trademark-registered goods, there may be a risk of infringement.”

From the perspective of Chinese consumers, “Vaseline” is both an ingredient and a brand name that is also relatively well-known. From a legal point of view, the trademark holder has the right to safeguard his own legitimate rights and interests within the term of validity of the trademark. In general, all makeup corporations should conduct themselves rightly and legally by both eradicating unfair competition that deliberately clings to famous brands, and resisting the evil trend of wrongful rights protection.