Groupe Danone ( DA - news - people ) agreed to sell its 51% interest in its joint ventures to its former partner, Chinese beverage tycoon Zong Qinghou's Hangzhou Wahaha, which finally ended all legal proceedings related to trademark and business disputes between the two parties.

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But companies that don't aggressively defend trademarks, even against seemingly innocuous intrusions, risk having courts decide that they abandoned the trademarks later when more substantive disputes crop up, Mr. Stephens says, echoing an argument well hewn by trademark lawyers.

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