The court said the three defendants behind New Boom — Zheng Chaozhong, Xin Ping Heng Sporting Goods Limited Company and Bo Si Da Ke Trading Limited — had relied on the “malice of free-riding,” saying their actions led to “confusion by a large number of consumers,” according to the ruling, which was made last Tuesday but has not yet been made public. The decision can still be appealed.

The court ruling reflects the Chinese government’s determination to confront the problem of piracy, which has long plagued many companies in a country where fake shoes, bags — and even meat — are widely available.

But many counterfeiters have moved beyond just making knockoffs to copying everything about a brand, short of the entire name. In New Balance’s case, the American company faces challenges from New Boom, New Barlun, and New Bunren, all of which are protected under China’s trademark law. (In China, trademarks are awarded to the first company to file for them, and unlike in the United States, businesses typically don’t have to give a reason for filing for them.)

New Balance, though, has sought to take all of them on. Since it started selling shoes in China in 1995, it has fought against dozens of counterfeit manufacturers, battled a rogue supplier who exported its shoes at a deep discount and struggled over the use of its Chinese name in the courts.

It has not been wholly successful — in April 2015, a Chinese court fined New Balance around $16 million after it lost a lawsuit to a man who had registered the trademark for the Chinese name of New Balance. The American company appealed and the fine was later reduced to about $700,000. New Balance is appealing the decision, which would go to China’s Supreme Court, according to Daniel McKinnon, New Balance’s senior counsel for intellectual property.