Upcycling and trademark protection in China: the Louis Vuitton case between product transformation and the exhaustion doctrine

A recent Chinese decision in Louis Vuitton v. Shenzhen Bangtu addresses the relationship between upcycling practices and trademark protection in the luxury sector. The courts held that transforming authentic second-hand bags into new products prominently bearing the original trademark exceeds the limits of the exhaustion doctrine and constitutes infringement.

This article was originally written by the Intellectual Property Observatory team, to which we refer for the whole text.

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