Case fileReal
Sanrio Co. Ltd v. Dong-A Pencil Co. Ltd
A Korean stationery maker registered "KITTY" and its Korean transliteration. The court found it was meant to trade on Hello Kitty’s fame.
Sanrio Co. Ltd,
Plaintiff,
v.
Dong-A Pencil Co. Ltd,
Defendant.
Docket No.not public
CourtSeoul High Court
StatusDecided
The record
- Court
- Seoul High Court
- Jurisdiction
- South Korea
- Docket No.
- not public
- Resolved
- 2003
- Sanrio’s role
- Plaintiff
- Type
- Trademark
- Claims
- Trademark infringement / bad-faith registration
- Counsel — plaintiff/petitioner
- not public
- Counsel — Sanrio side
- not public
What happened
A Korean stationery maker registered "KITTY" and its Korean transliteration. The court found it was meant to trade on Hello Kitty’s fame.
Outcome
Sanrio won. The Seoul High Court affirmed that Dong-A’s "KITTY" registration was made in bad faith to exploit confusion with HELLO KITTY.
The legal nuance
A bad-faith-registration win in a major Asian market; docket not public.
Sources of record