Local phone case maker ordered to pay TWD1 million for Fair Trade Act violation in phone case dispute

　The two most popular smartphone case brands in Taiwan, RHINOSHIELD (犀牛盾) supplied by Evolutive Labs Co., Ltd. (hereinafter “Evolutive Labs”), and DEVILCASE (惡魔盾) supplied by Devilcase Company Limited (hereinafter “Devilcase”), faced off in court over a dispute involving the allegation of imitation for the iPhone 11 phone cases.  Evolutive Labs accused Devilcase of plagiarism, demanding TWD1 million damages payment jointly and severally from Devilcase and its responsible person.  Both the first and second-instance judgments favored Evolutive Labs and ordered Devilcase to cease sale of the first and second generations of its infringing shockproof phone cases (hereinafter “Devilcase’s first generation phone case” and “Devilcase’s second generation phone case”) and also to publish the information of the civil judgment, including the parties’ names, cause of action, and main ruling of the judgment, on its official website and Facebook page for one month.  Devilcase appealed this civil case to the Supreme Court but the appeal was dismissed, which led to a third consecutive loss.  Evolutive Labs has a big win in this civil action, and this case is finalized now.  

　The two brands, RHINOSHIELD and DEVILCASE, are renowned for their respective iPhone cases.  In August 2018, Evolutive Labs launched its “Mod NX” series phone cases exclusively for the then-upcoming iPhone XR, iPhone11, iPhone11 Pro, and iPhone11 Pro Max, claiming the series as the first modular design of the two-mode case with frame and backplate switch as a combination.  Following the launch of the said series, Devilcase released the Devilcase’s first generation phone case in January 2019 for the same series of iPhone models and then introduced the Devilcase’s second generation phone case in September 2020 as a separation from the earlier version.  

　Evolutive Labs believed that Devilcase plagiarized not only its phone case products but also its online marketing strategy, “phone dressing room”, (which is Evolutive Labs’ innovative tool for customers to virtually preview how different phone cases would look on their phones), and such plagiarism caused consumers confusion and further caused a drop of RHINOSHIELD brand’s market share and damaged its business reputation.  Therefore, Evolutive Labs filed a lawsuit against Devilcase, seeking a court order prohibiting Devilcase from making and marketing the Devilcase’s first generation phone case and the Devilcase’s second generation phone case and demanding a damage payment of TWD1 million from Devilcase and its responsible person jointly and severally .  

　After the long-drawn-out proceedings of this civil case between the two companies, the court decided in favor of Evolutive Labs and sustained Devilcase’s plagiarism.  Devilcase appealed this court decision to the third instance.  The Supreme Court adjudicated on October 25, 2024 that Devilcase asserted the lower court’s improper decision and law violation without specifying the laws violated in concrete details, and therefore, ruled that Devilcase’s appeal is inadmissible and should be dismissed.  (Released 2024.10.25)  
/CCS