Shanghai Century Star Import & Export Corporation is publicly condemning the international fashion giant Pierre Cardin for violating business ethics, and states it will file a lawsuit against the fashion icon if it does not get a proper response to its demands.
According to Yao Yuming, a legal consultant for SCSIEC, Pierre Cardin signed a framework agreement with SCSIEC in August this year to sell its Chinese licenses to the Shanghai company, and this agreement would give SCSIEC sole rights to use the Pierre Cardin label on its products in China. SCSIEC said it also won approval from China's National Development and Reform Commission in late August, which made it the only qualified licensee for Pierre Cardin under domestic regulations. However, it learned in Mid-September that Pierre Cardin had signed a trademark transfer agreement on leather products with Cardanro, a company in Wenzhou, Zhejiang province.
According to Chen Liang, the president of SCSIEC, this is against the agreement SCSIEC reached with Pierre Cardin, adding that the corporation finds it unacceptable to co-purchase Pierre Cardin licenses with another company. The Shanghai company believed that all deals reached by other companies with Pierre Cardin on trademark purchase would not be recognized by NDRC as SCSIEC is the only company that has approval for this in China.
However, Sun Xiaofei, chairman of Cardanro — which is reported to have signed an EUD37 million agreement with Pierre Cardin for the purchase of trademark of the latter's leather products, and had already transferred the first batch of money as early as in May — stated that as they had signed an agreement with Pierre Cardin and fulfilled part of the payment, it would be impossible for them to withdraw from the transaction. Sun said that if necessary they would resort to the legal action against Pierre Cardin to protect their rights.
SCSIEC, which is an affiliate of the state-owned China National Garments Group Corporation, believes that "Pierre Cardin is taking advantage of Chinese enterprises' respect for its trademarks to incite competition and make illegal profits." and said that if Pierre Cardin did not reply to their legal letter in a proper manner, they would take legal action and ask the court to rescind the improper agreement between Pierre Cardin and Cardanro.
