Court Rules: Similar Packaging Constitutes Infringement! Genki Forest Awarded 300,000 Yuan in Compensation
Can consumers tell the genuine product from the fake at a glance when "Xuanxuan Iced Tea" is placed next to "Genki Forest Iced Tea"?
In March 2026, the Intermediate People's Court of Hefei City, Anhui Province delivered a first-instance judgment on the dispute over the infringement of the packaging and decoration rights of "Genki Forest Iced Tea" filed by Genki Forest (Beijing) Food Technology Group Co., Ltd. against Hebi Xuanxuan Food Co., Ltd., a food firm in Hefei City and other defendants. The court ruled that the defendants had committed unfair competition, ordering Xuanxuan Food to pay 304,000 yuan in compensation and the seller to pay 11,000 yuan.
In March 2025, a batch of "new products" quietly appeared on the shelves of the beverage market. Touted as "iced tea", these products bore a striking resemblance to the best-selling 900-milliliter Genki Forest Iced Tea in terms of bottle shape, color scheme and pattern layout. For a time, the market was plagued by consumer confusion, dealer bewilderment and threats to market order.
In this contest concerning brand rights and interests and market competition order, Genki Forest (Beijing) Food Technology Group Co., Ltd. chose to resort to legal means, suing the manufacturer Hebi Xuanxuan Food Co., Ltd. and a local food seller in Hefei to the court. In March 2026, the Intermediate People's Court of Hefei City issued a first-instance judgment, finding the defendants guilty of unfair competition, and ordering the manufacturer to pay 304,000 yuan in compensation and the seller 11,000 yuan.
Genki Forest vs Xuanxuan Food
According to Genki Forest, around March 2025, seven or eight types of counterfeit products with highly similar packaging to "Genki Forest Iced Tea" emerged en masse in the market and on e-commerce platforms. These products were almost a "complete copy" of the genuine ones in terms of bottle structure, graphic decoration, color scheme and core pattern layout.
Amid this wave of counterfeiting, the 900-milliliter "Xuanxuan Iced Tea" produced by Hebi Xuanxuan Food Co., Ltd. became a typical case. The packaging of this product was so similar to Genki Forest Iced Tea that it was barely distinguishable, both in terms of visual impact and detailed design.
In response, Genki Forest's legal team promptly initiated the rights protection procedure. After completing evidence collection, the company filed a lawsuit with the Intermediate People's Court of Hefei City, Anhui Province, naming both the manufacturer Xuanxuan Food and the Hefei-based seller as co-defendants.
How the Judiciary Defines "Counterfeiting"
The core legal issues in this case were: whether "Xuanxuan Iced Tea" constituted an infringement of the packaging and decoration of Genki Forest Iced Tea, and whether Genki Forest's packaging and decoration was protected by the Anti-Unfair Competition Law.
Genki Forest argued that the packaging and decoration of its iced tea product had a unique combination of elements including characters, graphics, colors, shapes and sizes. Through long-term market promotion and extensive publicity, it had formed a distinctive overall image that enabled the relevant public to identify the source of the goods, and thus should be legally recognized as a "well-known product packaging and decoration".
After hearing the case, the Hefei Intermediate People's Court held that the packaging and decoration of Genki Forest Iced Tea was indeed unique, and through long-term use and extensive publicity, it had formed a prominent overall image that allowed the relevant public to identify the source of the goods.
After comparing the infringing products, the court clearly pointed out that the "Xuanxuan Iced Tea" produced by the defendant was highly similar to Genki Forest's 900-milliliter Iced Tea in terms of bottle structure, graphic decoration, color scheme and core patterns. Even if there were partial textual differences, these minor adjustments were "insufficient to eliminate the overall visual confusion".
In the judgment, the court made a key characterization: such an act of "complete copying with minor local adjustments" constituted a typical act of unfair competition through counterfeiting and confusion, crossing the legal red line.
Judgment Results
Based on the above findings, the Hefei Intermediate People's Court made the following first-instance judgment:
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Order all defendants to immediately stop the production and sale of the infringing product "Xuanxuan Iced Tea"; order the manufacturer Hebi Xuanxuan Food Co., Ltd. to compensate Genki Forest for economic losses and reasonable expenses for rights protection totaling 304,000 yuan.
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Order the food firm in Hefei City to compensate Genki Forest for economic losses and reasonable expenses for rights protection totaling 11,000 yuan.
The Defendant's Litigation History
Interestingly, Xuanxuan Food is no stranger to intellectual property disputes. Founded on April 16, 2010 and mainly engaged in the manufacturing of alcoholic beverages and refined tea, the company has a number of litigation records with well-known food and beverage enterprises in judicial files.
According to the Litigation Knowledge Strategy Database of Sailaxin Market Research, many leading enterprises in the industry, including Dali Foods, Suntory Holdings Limited, Dayao Beverage and Yangyuan Beverage, have sued Xuanxuan Food for unfair competition, trademark infringement and other reasons. This series of litigation records paints a thought-provoking picture: the company's repeated involvement in counterfeiting disputes is no accident.
On June 25, 2025, after Genki Forest filed the lawsuit, Xuanxuan Food was imposed an administrative penalty of 48,000 yuan by the Qixian Market Supervision and Administration Bureau of Hebi City, Henan Province for "other confusing acts that are likely to mislead the public into believing that the goods are those of others or have a specific connection with others". This penalty decision further confirmed the company's compliance problems in market operation.
Establishing the Identification Criteria for "Well-known Product Packaging and Decoration"
The first-instance judgment of this case has multiple significances in judicial practice.
First of all, the court clarified the identification criteria for "well-known product packaging and decoration" — the packaging and decoration has a unique combination of elements such as characters, graphics, colors, shapes and sizes, and through long-term use and extensive publicity, it forms a prominent overall image that enables the relevant public to identify the source of the goods.
Secondly, the court made a clear definition of the nature of the act of "complete copying with minor local adjustments", which has important guiding significance for cracking down on edge-ball imitation acts.
In previous judicial practice, infringers often argued that they did not constitute infringement on the ground of minor differences. This judgment clarifies that unfair competition is constituted if the overall visual effect is highly similar and sufficient to cause consumer confusion.
In-depth Reflections Behind the Victory
The first-instance victory in Genki Forest's iced tea rights protection case is far from the end of a simple intellectual property dispute. It is an epitome of intellectual property protection in the food and beverage industry, reflecting the evolutionary trajectory of China's market competition order.
In today's increasingly fierce market competition, as an important identifying element of commodities, the commercial value and legal status of product packaging and decoration have become increasingly prominent. When some enterprises choose to "take shortcuts" and survive by imitation, judicial judgments are not only a negation of infringing acts in individual cases, but also a calibration of the competition rules for the entire industry.
