Case fileTrademark
Sanrio Company, Ltd. v. a firm trading as “サンリオ / SUNRIO”
A domestic Japanese case: Sanrio stopped an unrelated company from trading as “SUNRIO.”
Sanrio Company, Ltd.,
Plaintiff,
v.
An unrelated firm using “サンリオ” / “SUNRIO”,
Defendant.
Docket No.Heisei 8 (ワ) No. 2204
CourtNagoya District Court
StatusDecided
The record
- Court
- Nagoya District Court
- Jurisdiction
- Japan
- Docket No.
- Heisei 8 (ワ) No. 2204
- Resolved
- 1997
- Sanrio’s role
- Plaintiff
- Type
- Trademark
- Claims
- Unfair Competition Prevention Act — confusingly similar trade name
- Counsel — plaintiff/petitioner
- not public
- Counsel — Sanrio side
- not public
What happened
A domestic Japanese case: Sanrio stopped an unrelated company from trading as “SUNRIO.”
Outcome
Injunction granted for Sanrio (29 Sep 1997); “SANRIO” and “SUNRIO” were held phonetically identical and the trade-name registration was ordered cancelled.
The legal nuance
Protecting the house name itself, not a character, in the home market. Corroborated across Japanese case databases whose hosts block automated reading.
Sources of record