Chang Tsi & Partners

DFJ DragonFund Successfully Enforce the Effective Judgment

Established in 2006, DFJ DragonFund was the joint venture of Draper Fisher Jurvetson (DFJ) and DragonVenture, which concentrated on investing emerging technology in China. DFJ DragonFund is the trademark holder of trademarks including “德丰杰龙脉”(DFJ DragonFund) in China.

In 2016, on behalf of DFJ DragonFund, ChangTsi filed a civil action against Charles Qu (Chinese Name: 曲敬东) and his affiliates for their trademark infringement and unfair competition. Through efforts, DFJ DragonFund won both first instance and second instance: the first-instance was heard by The Primary People’s Court of Haidian District of Beijing Municipality (hereinafter referred as Haidian District Court) and the second instance was tried by Beijing Intellectual Property Court.

Since Charles Qu and his affiliates failed to fulfill the obligations determined in the effective judgment within the prescribed time limit, ChangTsi on behalf of DFJ DragonFund then filed to compulsorily enforce the judgment with Haidian District Court in May, 2021. During the enforcement procedure, ChangTsi submitted several written motions to the Enforcement Department of Haidian District Court, actively and closely communicate with the in-charge judges on the specific enforcement measures, deadlines and steps to move forward the case.

Through our persistent efforts, the Enforcement Department made a “Consumption Restriction” order against Charles Qu to restrict his extravagant consumptions, froze exceeding CNY 3.3M on Charles Qu’s and his affiliates’ bank accounts, and then transferred the money to our client DFJ DragonFund to compensate his loss, reasonable cost and accrued interest. And, a statement for apology in the name of Charles Qu and his affiliates was published both on the official website of “The People’s Court Announcement” (https://rmfygg.court.gov.cn/) & the newspaper “The People’s Court Daily” simultaneously to eliminate the negative impacts on DFJ DragonFund. Besides, Charles Qu and his affiliates were also forced to fulfil the obligations of changing the infringing enterprises’ name, closing their infringing websites and WeChat official accounts, and removing the infringing logos and decorations in their office. Up to now, all the enforceable matters determined in the effective judgment have been successfully implemented.

This enforcement case involves several types of obligations confirmed by the judgment, which included not only property items like compensation damages, but also non-property enforcement items like publishing apology statement, changing the name of the infringing enterprises, transferring the domain names for free, and stopping other online & offline infringement. The in-charge attorneys in this case(Tracy Shen and Shawn Tao) made advanced full preparations and managed to make the aforementioned items enforced in full aspects. In addition, there are six parties subject to enforcement, therefor how to distribute and bear the obligations among them and enforce the case in an efficient way is also quite challenging. Our attorneys carefully researched laws and precedents and then proposed the solution to the court.

With the joint efforts of the client, the judges and our attorneys, the judgment was duly enforced. It’s a satisfactory result for DFJ DragonFund’s 5-year lasting civil action while also encourages more right holders to defend their legitimate rights and interest via judicial channels in China.