Sicis mosaics win Chinese counterfeiting case

In China, Sicis has won its case against Chinese company Rose Mosaic for copyright infringement. It is a landmark international ruling in the field of copyright protection.

Sicis, an internationally renowned producer of high-end mosaics and designer products, has won a complex civil lawsuit against Chinese company Rose Mosaic and its Beijing distributor Pebble at the Guangdong Court of Appeal for copyright infringement.

This unprecedented copyright ruling marks the culmination of four years of legal battles.

For years, Rose Mosaic had been copying Sicis’ catalogues in their entirety and using the company’s image, as well as reproducing photos of its showroom. The Chinese judges awarded the Ravenna-based company significant damages, one of the highest amounts ever paid in China for an artistic and creative counterfeiting case, stating: “The Sicis brand enjoys an excellent reputation in China thanks to the unique design and workmanship of its mosaics, which are considered artistic products and must therefore be protected by Chinese law.”

The legal proceedings began in 2018 in the Beijing District Court following long and patient investigative work lasting more than a year which had yielded abundant material proving more than one hundred cases of breaches of the law.

The Court also ordered Rose Mosaic and Pebble to publish apologies for twelve months in official journals and for twenty-four consecutive months in local newspapers in Beijing, Shanghai and the Guangdong province, as well as in a national ceramic industry publication in order to remedy the negative impact on the Italian company caused by the acts of copyright infringement and unfair competition.

This is a major victory not just for Sicis, but for the whole of the high-end Italian manufacturing industry.