"Chain Reaction"
Recently, according to the public information of the National Enterprise Bankruptcy and Reorganization Case Information Network, the People's Court of Kunshan City, Jiangsu Province has ruled to accept the bankruptcy liquidation case of Jieshibao Cosmetics (Kunshan) Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Kunshan Jieshibao"), and appointed Jiangsu Xinrui Certified Public Accountants Co., Ltd. as the administrator.
It is worth mentioning that the parent company of Kunshan Jieshibao is Shanghai Jieshibao Daily Chemical Group Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Shanghai Jieshibao"), which was previously sentenced to pay a maximum compensation of 5 million yuan for trademark infringement by China Resources Cestbon Beverage (China) Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Cestbon Company"). It is reported that Kunshan Jieshibao is not the first subsidiary of Shanghai Jieshibao to be filed for bankruptcy liquidation by creditors.
With subsidiaries being filed for bankruptcy liquidation one after another, what is the current status of this cosmetics company, which has been awarded the first maximum compensation in recent years?
Two subsidiaries were filed for bankruptcy liquidation
Qingyan learned through the National Enterprise Bankruptcy and Reorganization Case Information Network that two subsidiaries of Shanghai Jieshibao have been applied for bankruptcy liquidation by creditors, and the total liabilities that have been disclosed may exceed one million yuan.
On April 9, according to the civil ruling issued by the People's Court of Kunshan City, Jiangsu Province, Pan Moumou requested the court to liquidate Kunshan Jieshibao on the grounds that Kunshan Jieshibao could not pay off the due debts and obviously lacked solvency. According to the national enterprise credit information publicity system, Kunshan Jieshibao was established in 2014 with a registered capital of 5 million yuan, and its main business scope is cosmetics, cleaning products, etc., and the legal representative is Sun Mouyou, which is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Shanghai Jieshibao.
The court held that from the perspective of Kunshan Jieshibao's debts, the company obviously lacked solvency and could not pay off the debts due, so it met the conditions for bankruptcy acceptance. Therefore, the People's Court of Kunshan City, Jiangsu Province, ruled to accept the bankruptcy liquidation application of Pan Moumou against Kunshan Jieshibao. At this point, Kunshan Jieshibao will officially enter the bankruptcy liquidation process, and the first creditors' meeting will be held on May 15.
▍Intercepted from the National Enterprise Bankruptcy and Reorganization Case Information Network
According to the process of bankruptcy liquidation, after an enterprise is declared bankrupt by the people's court in accordance with the law, it will go through four steps: accepting and appointing an administrator, carrying out liquidation, declaring bankruptcy and property distribution, and terminating the bankruptcy procedure, and finally submit it to the court to terminate the bankruptcy procedure. However, at present, Kunshan Jieshibao has not entered the final liquidation process, and its total debt has not yet been announced.
In addition, according to the information of the China Enforcement Information Disclosure Network, there are currently 3 pieces of enforcement information in Kunshan Jieshibao, and the case will be filed between June and November 2023, with a total of 247,400 yuan in execution targets.
▍Intercepted from the China Enforcement Information Disclosure Network
It is worth noting that Kunshan Jesbao is not the only enterprise under Shanghai Jesbao that has been filed for bankruptcy liquidation by creditors.
In January this year, according to the civil ruling issued by the People's Court of Kunshan City, Jiangsu Province, Jin and 11 others requested the People's Court of Kunshan City, Jiangsu Province to transfer the enterprise for bankruptcy review on the grounds that Jiangsu Jieshibao Daily Chemical Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Jiangsu Jieshibao") could not pay off its due debts and obviously lacked solvency. According to the national enterprise credit information publicity system, Jiangsu Jieshibao was established in 2020, the legal representative is Sun Mouyou, and its business scope includes cosmetics wholesale and retail, with a registered capital of 5 million yuan, and it is also a wholly-owned subsidiary of Shanghai Jieshibao.
The court held that from the perspective of Jiangsu Jieshibao's debts, the company clearly lacked solvency and therefore met the conditions for bankruptcy acceptance. At present, the detailed debt information of Jiangsu Jieshibao has not been released.
However, according to the public documents of the manager of Jiangsu Jieshibao, the manager has completed the relevant investigation results of Jiangsu Jieshibao employee bonds. The results show that the total amount of employee claims of Jiangsu Jieshibao is 1.243 million yuan. In addition, judging from the voting results of the case announced in March this year, the total amount of claims represented by creditors with voting rights is 4.3955 million yuan
In addition, according to the public information of the China Enforcement Information Disclosure Network, there are currently 6 pieces of execution information in Jiangsu Jieshibao, and the case filing time is between April and November 2023, with a total of 1.7133 million yuan in execution targets.
The Qingyan investigation found that, according to the disclosed public information, as of now, the amount of the execution target disclosed by the above two enterprises that have been applied for bankruptcy liquidation has not been fulfilled, and Sun Mouyou, the legal representative and actual controller of the enterprise, has become the person subject to execution and has been restricted from high consumption. In addition, according to the national enterprise credit information publicity system, Sun Mouyou is also the only natural person major shareholder of Shanghai Jieshibao.
However, judging from the documents that have been published so far, neither Kunshan Jieshibao nor Jiangsu Jieshibao have entered the final bankruptcy procedure, and the company still has the opportunity to seek the consent of creditors and strive for reconciliation, so as to retain the qualification of the enterprise as a market entity and continue to operate.
He was awarded maximum compensation for trademark infringement
Two subsidiaries were filed for bankruptcy liquidation by creditors, how did Shanghai Jieshibao behind it get into such a situation?
According to the national enterprise credit information publicity system, Shanghai Jieshibao was established in 2013 and was formerly known as "Shanghai Cestbon Cosmetics Co., Ltd." when it was established, which is mainly engaged in the research and development, production, sales and other services of daily chemical products. According to the official website of Shanghai Jieshibao, the company has many subdivided brands including COCOVEL, Ruicai, Kangpai, Applause, Manzhitang, etc., and its products cover fragrance, shampoo, hair care, skin care products, cosmetics, baby care products and home care.
Prior to this, the most well-known incident in the industry was an unfair competition dispute case with Cestbon Company, one of the well-known packaged drinking water companies in China.
According to the judgment released by the Shanghai Intellectual Property Court [(2020) Hu 73 Min Chu No. 787], as early as 2020, Cestbon Company sued Shanghai Jieshibao in court, claiming that Shanghai Jieshibao had infringed the well-known trademarks "Cestbon" and "Cestbon" owned by C'estbon Company for a long time, and claimed to be "Cestbon Group", "Cestbon People" and "Cestbon Company".
▍Intercepted from the WeChat public account of "Shanghai Intellectual Property Court".
As of November 2021, the Shanghai Intellectual Property Court issued a first-instance civil judgment on the trademark infringement dispute between Cestbon and Shanghai Jieshibao. According to the judgment, Shanghai Jieshibao has been infringing one after another since its establishment, and the infringement has been long and large-scale, and according to the information submitted by Shanghai Jieshibao, its operating income has been relatively high in some years, so the circumstances of the infringement are heinous and the damage caused is relatively large.
In addition, according to the first-instance judgment of the Shanghai Intellectual Property Court, after receiving the infringement notice letter from Cestbon Company, Shanghai Jieshibao not only did not stop the infringement, but also registered a large number of trademarks containing the logo "Cestbon", and even applied for registration on urns, coffins, shrouds and other goods, with obvious subjective malice.
One is a drinking water company and the other is a cosmetics company, and the two do not constitute direct competition. Shanghai Jieshibao also said in its defense in this case that "there is no competitive relationship between the two parties". However, Cestbon is a well-known trademark. The court held that both parties are business operators in the mainland market, and the existence of intra-industry competition does not affect the application of the Anti-Unfair Competition Law. "Whether Cestbon Company registered the corresponding trademark on Class 3 cosmetics goods does not affect the determination of this case. Therefore, this court did not accept the corresponding defense opinions of Jesbao Company. ”
In the end, Shanghai Jieshibao was sentenced to stop the infringement and apologize, and at the same time compensated Cestbon for economic losses of 5 million yuan and reasonable expenses of more than 130,000 yuan to stop the infringement.
It is worth mentioning that this judgment is a top-level compensation in the field of intellectual property infringement, and such a high amount of compensation has also brought a lot of impact to Shanghai Jieshibao. According to public information, in 2022, due to the failure of Shanghai Jieshibao to fulfill the amount of compensation, Cestbon Company applied for compulsory compensation, and in the process of enforcement, all the shares of Jiangsu Jieshibao and Kunshan Jieshibao have been frozen since February 2023.
▍Intercepted from the National Enterprise Credit Information Publicity System
There is no way out of the way to "take advantage of loopholes and free ride".
At the same time, Shanghai Jesbao began to fall into frequent legal disputes, and these disputes also had a great impact on its subsidiaries, affiliated enterprises and shareholders.
According to the public information of the China Enforcement Information Disclosure Network, there are currently 15 pieces of executed information in Shanghai Jieshibao, most of which have not been performed, with a total of 19.7196 million yuan, and Sun Mouyou, the largest shareholder of the company, and Cheng Mouxiang, the legal representative of the company, are listed as restricted consumers.
In addition, Shanghai Jieshibao has also generated a number of new debt lawsuits.
According to the enforcement ruling of the Kunshan Municipal People's Court [(2023) Su 0583 Zhi No. 13008], Sun Mouyou, Cheng Mouyou, and Shanghai Jieshibao were applied for compulsory enforcement in a debt dispute lawsuit with Suzhou Industrial Park Hongrun Rural Microfinance Co., Ltd. Among them, Kunshan Fu'an Enterprise Management Center (Limited Partnership), a holding company of Sun Mouyou, was forced to pay 11.6 million yuan and was issued a consumption restriction order by the Kunshan Municipal People's Court.
In addition, in February this year, according to the enforcement ruling of the Shanghai Fengxian District People's Court [(2024) Hu Fa Zhi 0120 Min Chu Zi No. 3130], in the private lending dispute case, Sun Mouyou was frozen by the Shanghai Fengxian District People's Court for 3,613,427 shares of Shanghai Jieshibao. In addition, its holding companies, Xiamen Jiexi Brand Management Co., Ltd. and Cornerstone Private Equity Fund Management Co., Ltd., froze their equity of 111,473 yuan and 97 million yuan respectively.
▍Intercepted from the National Enterprise Credit Information Publicity System
And these are only the tip of the iceberg of Shanghai Jieshibao's subsidiaries and affiliated enterprises due to judicial disputes to freeze their equity and enforcement, all kinds of debt disputes are bringing a series of chain reactions to Shanghai Jieshibao, and many of its enterprises have been frozen equity and even become executors.
In addition, Qingyan found on the official website of the State Food and Drug Administration that at present, among Shanghai Jieshibao and its subsidiaries, Jieshibao Daily Chemical Products (Kunshan) Co., Ltd. and Manzhitang (Shanghai) Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. used to have cosmetics registration information, but they are currently shown to have been cancelled. However, at present, there are still 6 whitening special certificate products under Jieshibao Daily Chemical Products (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. in an effective state, while the rest of the ordinary cosmetics filing shows that some of them have been cancelled, and the other part has an abnormal filing status due to the failure to submit the annual report on time. Overall, the number of cosmetics registered and filed under Shanghai Jieshibao is only in single digits.
▍Screenshot from the official website of the State Food and Drug Administration
In fact, the current situation of Shanghai Jesbao is only a microcosm of the transformation of the cosmetics industry to high-quality development. Judging from the current market, cosmetics companies have entered the stage of major reshuffle, and the tide of bankruptcy is sweeping all areas of the industry. According to the previous statistics of Qingyan, in the first quarter of this year alone, at least 23 companies went bankrupt (see Qingyan's article "Bankruptcy Tide, Another 23 Cosmetics Companies Can't Hold On!"). Among them, there are not only long-established companies such as Shanghai Jieshibao, but also some "new beauty species" that have been infinitely beautiful, but it is obvious that in the face of rapid changes in the cosmetics market, a mistake can easily lead to enterprises falling into an irreparable quagmire.
And it is clear that under the development trend of industry compliance, the past way of "exploiting loopholes and free-riding" has long been nowhere to go. Similarly, companies that still want to gain business by obfuscating the public and fishing in troubled waters will inevitably be drowned in the torrent of major changes in the industry. Only enterprises that carry out product research and development in a down-to-earth manner and abide by market rules can always stand in an invincible position in the market while moving forward.