In Inter Ikea Systems B.V. (Inter Ikea) v. Beijing Guo Wang Information Co., Ltd. (Beijing Guo Wang), the former, a Dutch manufacture of home furnishing items, owned registrations for the IKEA and IKEA & Device marks in respect of various goods and services in 91 countries, including Canada, China (PRC), France, Hong Kong, the United Kingdom and the United States. Beijing Guo Wang, a Chinese company engaged in the business of providing online voice mail services, registered the domain name "ikea.com.cn". Inter Ikea filed an action to cancel this domain name registration and to force the Chinese company to cease using the website.

Inter Ikea argued that the Chinese equivalent of the IKEA trademark was well-known in Chinese-speaking countries, including China, Hong Kong and Taiwan. They further submitted that their IKEA mark had been registered for several decades and that the use and legal status of the mark had never been interrupted. It was also pointed out that, in addition to the domain name, ikea.com.cn, Beijing Guo Wang had registered several well-known trademarks as domain names, but had never used them.

The Second Intermediate People's Court in Beijing held that IKEA was a well-known trademark and, by registering and using this mark as a domain name, Beijing Guo Wang had infringed the trademark rights of Inter Ikea and had engaged in unfair competition. The Court issued a decision restraining Beijing Guo Wang from using the domain name, ikea.com.cn, and ordered that the registration therefor be canceled within 10 days of the decision.

The Court's decision has been appealed, but pending a decision in the appeal, the case provides an important precedent in which the Chinese court has afforded protection of trademark rights in a domain name dispute.