Recently, a mainland netizen shared an experience that made people laugh and cry. He said that he had wanted to go to Disneyland with his Family for a day of fun, but was guided by the navigation to a super dirt “cottage Disneyland”. To the location to take a look at the tin house next to a simple red door, hanging on the door a few large red lanterns, the door on both sides of the couplet, which reads “Let joy sail away from here”. Some netizens tease that joy does sail away from now on ……
And look at the feedback of netizens, this friend looking for Li Kui, the result of finding Li Ghost experience is not an isolated case, this kind of cottage stores, in the mainland is to make people defensive.
Two days ago, is the annual “315” counterfeit day in mainland China, and the development of the “cottage” industry in mainland China is also rapidly changing, upgraded version constantly updated, many international brands to the development of the mainland, but also had to be in the problem of cottage paid a Many international brands have had to pay huge tuition fees for being copied.
In this episode, we will focus on the topic of “trademark and patent infringement”, and “the genuine version loses against the copycat”.
The fish seller is so angry that he vomits blood when he encounters a licensed robber
When we were planning to do this episode, coincidentally, Singapore’s “singing station brother” Wang Lei also encountered this embarrassing and infuriating incident. Ten days ago, Wang Lei posted on his Facebook page that he registered his trademark “Fish Seller” in Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan and China in July last year, and was successful in all other regions, but his application was rejected in China because a man from Fujian registered his trademark with the authorities a week in advance. The application was rejected because a Fujian man had registered the trademark of “fish seller” with the authorities a week in advance, so his products could not be sold in mainland China, and even an appeal to a local lawyer was rejected.
Wang Lei has been selling fish live on the Internet since March last year, and then created the image and logo of “Fish Seller”. As a result, Wang Lei’s trademark was maliciously grabbed, not only did he suffer huge losses when a container of “fish seller” coffee was returned from mainland China, but what made him even more angry was that he was accused of stealing someone else’s trademark, so Wang Lei shouted that he was “about to vomit blood”. Wang Lei was so angry that he shouted “about to vomit blood” and accused the other party of being a “licensed robber”.
However, Wang Lei’s case is still small, even if it is a well-known international brand, to the Chinese mainland after the confession of the matter is not a few.
Internationally known trademarks are snatched real Li Kui can’t beat fake Li Kui
The United States electric car factory tesla (Tesla) powerful, but in 2006, a Guangdong businessman in the local pre-registered Tesla’s Chinese and English name trademark, after the two sides because the price can not agree, in 2013, Tesla proposed to tell the claim. In the end, the two sides settled privately, and the amount is still a mystery.
In 2006, when Apple intended to launch the iPad tablet computer, it was discovered that two categories of the iPad trademark had been registered by Shenzhen Proview Company. In June 2014, Apple had to pay $60 million to settle the iPad trademark dispute, admitting to pay damages, before the case was settled.
In 2006, Trump, then an American real estate tycoon, applied for registration of the trademarks Trump, Trump and TRUMP in mainland China, but his application was rejected in 2009 because a person named Dong Wei had registered the trademark of the same name 14 days earlier than him. Trump fought a lawsuit over this for almost a decade. It was only after he was elected president of the United States in 2016 that the Chinese Communist authorities ruled that Dong Wei’s trademark was invalid and approved Trump’s trademark applications one after another.
However, not everyone has the opportunity to become president, the genuine Japanese brand “MUJI” is not so lucky, it was grabbed by the Chinese mainland copycat company trademark, but also in turn was sued for infringement, after the appeal finally lost in December 2019, not only to delete the textile category on the goods The plaintiff had to be compensated with 625,000 yuan for the trademark of “WuYinLiangPin” in the textile category.
And the most noteworthy is what happened to the famous American running shoe brand New Balance in mainland China.
New Balance entered China back in the 1990s, but its Chinese brand “New Balance” was secretly trademarked by its agent in mainland China. The company named Yangjiang Youlian Footwear privately produced a large number of counterfeit products, which caused serious damage to the New Balance brand and finally, New Balance withdrew from the mainland China market.
In 2003, New Balance returned to mainland China and personally registered the trademarks New Balance, NB, and N letters, but forgot to register the new Chinese translation “新百伦”.
As a result, “New Balance” and “Bailun” were snapped up by a private enterprise in China, and for a while, various New Balance, New Balance, New Balance, etc., sprang up on the market, making it difficult to distinguish the real from the fake.
In 2013, the owner of the trademark “New Balance”, Zhou Lelun, also took New Balance to court, demanding the other party to stop infringement and compensation of 98 million yuan. The owner of the trademark “New Balance”, Zhou Lelun, took New Balance to court in 2013, demanding the other party to stop the infringement and pay 98 million RMB.
Of course, these examples are just the tip of the iceberg. Moreover, the demonstration effect that the genuine version cannot win against the copycat has obviously further encouraged and promoted the prevalence of piracy and copycat, and the team of counterfeiters has been growing.
Why does the “wind of copycat” in the “big country of copycat” persist?
Of course, there is a patent law in mainland China, and the Patent Law in mainland China has been implemented since 1984, and it has been 37 years since then.
Some people say it is worth the risk, because the registration of a patent does not cost much money, but the benefits can be obtained thousands of times; some say it is because the punishment is too light.
Not only that, many so-called experts and scholars living in the “cottage country” also defend the “cottage Culture” with conviction. For example, a mainland sociologist argues that the cottage industry should be understood as an inevitable phenomenon during the nurturing period of market economy, defines “cottage culture” as a kind of folk wisdom and innovation, and identifies the cottage industry as a kind of “cottage industry”, etc.
If we look at the titles of some articles on the mainland internet, we will see that they are all like “Copying is the mother of innovation” and “Is it a shame to start by copying? “The cottage technology giant is Tencent Technology, founded by Ma Huateng, the richest man in mainland China.
From the propaganda orientation of the media, we can see that many of them are singing the praises of “cottage culture”. So, in such a cultural atmosphere, it would be strange if the wind of cottage industry could be banned.
In fact, the so-called “cottage culture” concept itself is deception. No culture, that is, counterfeiting, from the technical point of view there is no innovation, but is copying or even steal technology, and in the face of the “cottage” challenge, formal enterprises in order to compress costs, had to cut back on research and development costs, curtailing innovative activities. Therefore, the “cottage culture” not only does not promote the sustainable and healthy development of enterprises, but also is a real cancer that hinders and inhibits innovation activities.
How wild are the cottage brands in mainland China?
Two days ago, I read an interesting article on Netease on the mainland called “How wild are China’s cottage brands? .
The author, a chief marketing officer, told a story in the article, saying that when he was in junior high school military training, he bought a pack of Oreo cookies at the kiosk for $2.50, and at that Time he only felt that the color seemed to be more purple and the texture was not quite the same, but he didn’t think much about it. After a closer look, the three words on the original package were “Yue Li Yue”.
I think that this really speaks the charm of Chinese pictographs. Similarly, “Nongfu Mountain Spring” became “Farmer Mountain Spring”, “Master Kong” became “Kang Shuaibo”, and so on. And so on, and “Sprite” became “Leibi”, the ice feeling was instantly elevated to a new level ……
So, in the mainland, the Chinese level is close, it is likely to affect the quality of Life, that English is close to the line? Probably not, because now many foreign brands of the English alphabet, the Chinese cottage elite can find out the characteristics of the pictogram, like this KFC, you are likely to eat the chicken who do not know ……
So, how to prevent being copycat? Let’s take a look at the mainland Chinese tycoon style cottage anti-blocking method.
The mainland Chinese tycoon style “cottage anti-blocking method”
On October 28, 2020, the well-known chain of hot pot restaurants in mainland China, “Seabed Loy”, in one day, applied for 177 trademarks, including on the seabed Loy, black sea Loy, pool bottom Loy, drain bottom Loy, seabed Amoy, seabed pick up, etc., the dazzling text expressions, look at the people truly admire the relevant staff, too talented. The staff is so talented.
In August 2019, because of the trademark infringement, the bottom of the sea and Changsha Hunan restaurant “river bottom fish” in court, the court ruled in the first instance, the river bottom fish restaurant does not constitute a trademark right The court ruled in the first instance that the restaurant did not constitute trademark infringement.
The company has been forced to register more than just the bottom of the sea, but also like the well-known Lao Gan Ma, in the trademark registration is also under the blood, like the old godfather, the old godmother, the old mother, the old mother, the old mother, the old dry milk, and so on, really is where the relatives are, are trying to reunite. And the Internet giant Alibaba, registered trademark is a collection of ancestors three generations of blood relatives, like Ali dad, Ali mom, Ali grandpa, Ali grandma, Ali uncle, Ali uncle, Ali aunt, Ali brothers, Ali baby, etc..
Starbucks, an international brand, has also followed the custom and registered dozens of trademarks that could be copied, such as Sobak, Simbak, Xingbak, and so on.
Does the Chinese Communist Party really protect intellectual property rights?
This trademark snatching frenzy may be really unbearable to watch, or perhaps to give foreign investors a piece of mind, in any case, in November 2019, the CCP implemented the revised Trademark Law, which added the prohibition of malicious snatching of others’ trademarks.
Finally, starting in 2020, some Western companies saw the light and began to win and receive compensation in trademark infringement lawsuits. For example, at the end of April 2020, New Barlun, a mainland Chinese company, lost its case and was required to pay RMB 10.8 million in damages for infringement of a trademark too similar to New Balance.
But against the backdrop of the U.S.-China trade war and the economic downturn in mainland China, is this a genuine attempt by the Chinese Communist Party to protect intellectual property rights, or is it a means to continue to attract foreign investment? It may be too early to say for sure, otherwise, shouldn’t the “fish seller” in Singapore be able to get justice?
The reality is that this variant of “copying is justified and plagiarism is not a crime” is still deeply rooted in the public opinion environment in mainland China, so it is difficult to put an end to those acts of copying and piracy. However, this kind of behavior, which is detached from basic moral values, is not destined to end well.
For example, the sensational Japanese Honda Motor sued Hebei Shuanghuan Automobile for plagiarism, but in 2015, a Hebei court awarded Honda 16 million yuan in damages instead. However, an ill-gotten fortune did not fatten this Shuanghuan car, and in 2016, Shuanghuan was withdrawn from production, and its collapse was a great relief to many.
The widely publicized Qiaodan infringement case in mainland China also came to an end in April last year, when the Communist Party’s Supreme Court ruled against the copycat brand Qiaodan Sports, which many netizens said was “a great relief. Previously, this copycat Qiaodan Sports had won several lawsuits, but its IPO process, which was scheduled to land on the SSE in 2012, was put on hold for nine years until now because of the lawsuit, so the end of this copycat Qiaodan is neither detrimental nor beneficial.
Speaking of which, it reminds me of a news item that was once hotly debated in the media last year. Germany, known for its technology, set up an international award, this award, 2019 Chinese mainland companies took the top ten, and last year China took six of the top ten, but as Chinese, we are really not happy, because this award is called “Golden Nose Plagiarism Award”, it is a mocking way to declare the public you is a plagiarized copycat!
The Chinese nation is an ancient civilization of 5,000 years, and the Chinese are considered to be a very intelligent people. However, since the Chinese Communist Party came to power, the values of Chinese people have slowly changed, and “money-oriented” by any means has become the value of many people. How they hope that the traditional culture of the Chinese nation can be taken seriously again, and that Chinese people will not be “smart and confused people” again.
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