4.26 World Intellectual Property Day
Innovation is the first driving force to lead development, and the protection of intellectual property rights is to protect innovation. On the eve of the 24th World Intellectual Property Day on April 26, 2024, Kaifu Court has launched a series of intellectual property protection cases to effectively strengthen intellectual property protection, comprehensively enhance the public's awareness of respecting and protecting intellectual property rights, and strongly support comprehensive innovation and high-quality development.
now
Online shopping has become a part of everyday life
It provides great convenience for consumers to shop
And the merchant is to attract the attention of customers
Start making a fuss about your product
For example
"The same paragraph as a certain star" and "the same paragraph as a certain program"
You want to use its popularity to drive traffic to your products
Is this form of propaganda infringing?
Let's take a look at the real case~
PART.01/ 基本案情
The plaintiff, a media company, was the copyright owner of the program "Wife's Romantic Trip" in the work in question, which had a high popularity and popularity after it was broadcast, and the defendant, a trading company, without obtaining the plaintiff's legal authorization, used "The Romantic Travel of the Versatile Wife of a Silk Scarf Woman, Zhang Ziyi's Same Shawl, Summer Thin Beach Scarf, Scarf" as the title of a product link in its own online shopping store.
The title of the link to the product in question
And there are two pictures in the picture display area of the product that are the same as the main picture in the second season of the work "Wife's Romantic Trip".
The picture display area of the goods involved in the case
The plaintiff argued
The defendant used the screenshot of the work "Wife's Romantic Trip" in the store it operated without authorization, so that the public could obtain the work at a time and place of its choosing, and its conduct constituted an infringement of the plaintiff's right to disseminate information on the Internet.
In addition, the defendant's unauthorized use of "Wife's Romantic Trip" as its trade name would mislead the relevant public into believing that the goods it sold were somehow related to "Wife's Romantic Travel", thereby seeking an unfair competitive advantage for the defendant itself, and the defendant's conduct violated the principle of good faith and damaged the legitimate rights and interests of the plaintiff, constituting unfair competition against the plaintiff.
The defendant argued that:
The defendant sold the goods involved in the case in its store with very low sales and little profit, and consumers bought the same model only because they liked the outfit in the link.
PART.02/Court decision
The court held that this case was an infringement of the right of information network dissemination and a dispute over unfair competition. The focus of the dispute in this case is the following two aspects:
1. Does the use of screenshots of the program infringe on the plaintiff's right to disseminate information on the network?
The program "Wife's Romantic Trip" is an audio-visual work under the Copyright Law. An audiovisual work is actually a collection of single static frames, each of which can be understood as an integral part of the work. Therefore, the protection of copyright law for audiovisual works should extend to every frame, and screenshots of audiovisual works should not be viewed in isolation.
In this case, the defendant used two screenshots of the work involved in the case on the display page of the product link of the store operated by the defendant without the legal authorization of the plaintiff, which also belonged to the use of the audiovisual work itself, so that the public could obtain the work at a time and place of its own choice, which was an act of infringing the plaintiff's right of information network dissemination.
2. Does the use of the expression "celebrity with the same paragraph" on the product link constitute an act of unfair competition?
According to Article 6 of the Anti-Unfair Competition Law, the unauthorized use of marks that are identical or similar to the names, packaging, decorations, etc., of goods that have a certain degree of influence on others, leading people to mistakenly believe that they are the goods of others or that there is a specific connection with others, constitutes an act of unfair competition.
"Wife's Romantic Trip", as a variety show of the plaintiff's media company, is a cultural product circulating in the market, which itself has commercial value and can be protected as a commodity, and the program has been broadcast on multiple online platforms, its broadcast volume is relatively high, and it has a high reputation among the public, and "Wife's Romantic Trip" has the function of distinguishing the source of the commodity, and can be found to be a "commodity name with a certain degree of influence".
The defendant's use of the expression "Wife's Romantic Travel Zhang Ziyi's Same Style" in the link name of the Tmall store it operated was to indicate that the products it sold were related to the works in question, and that it wanted to increase the attention and search volume of its products, so as to achieve the result of increasing sales. Such use by the defendant may lead to the public misleading the public as having a specific connection between the product it sells and the producer of the work in question, i.e., the plaintiff. The plaintiff invested a large amount of resources in the production and publicity of the variety show involved in the case, forming a certain degree of popularity and competitive interests, and the arbitrary use and use of the program name by others to publicize and promote related commodities is in essence to use the resources and competitive advantages of others to seize improper commercial interests, and it is doing things that harm the lawful rights and interests of others in the name of freedom, and it is also detrimental to the order of regulating market competition.
verdict
Within 10 days from the effective date of this judgment, the defendant trading company shall compensate the plaintiff a media company for economic losses and reasonable rights protection expenses totaling 10,000 yuan.
PART.03/ 法官说法
Liu Shan
Judge presiding over the case
Among the online shopping platforms, it is not uncommon for online store operators to use the titles of "the same style of a certain celebrity" and "the same style of a certain program" to attract attention, but such sales of "the same paragraph" by online store operators are likely to constitute infringement.
For example, in this case, the online store operator violated the Anti-Unfair Competition Law and the Copyright Law respectively by using the program name of the variety show involved in the product link and the program screenshot in the link. In addition, the use of celebrities' photos to promote and sell "celebrities with the same style" may also infringe on the celebrity's portrait rights and name rights, and the sale of pirated "same" products may also constitute an infringement of others' trademark rights or copyrights.
It is understandable that online store operators want to attract consumers' attention and increase store traffic and sales, but they should use legal methods to operate in good faith and do not infringe on the rights of others because they are greedy for temporary traffic.
Source: Changsha Kaifu Court
Editor: Sharon