On the occasion of the 24th World Intellectual Property Day, on the afternoon of April 23, 2024, the 2023-2024 Top Ten Intellectual Property Protection Cases Release and Exchange Conference of the Quality Brand Protection Working Committee of the China Association of Enterprises with Foreign Investment (hereinafter referred to as the "Quality Assurance Committee") was held in Beijing.
This is the 23rd time that the Quality Assurance Committee has held the top ten case release activities, and in the context of the record 78 cases nominated for the review, the two cases represented by Haihua Yongtai lawyers stood out. Universal Pictures' "Prevention of 'Minion' Name Dilution Case" represented by Haihua Yongtai Huang Jianlin's lawyer team, and Mattel's "Barbie Doll Copyright Criminal Rights Protection First Case" represented by Tang Lanxiang's lawyer team were honorably selected as the top ten intellectual property protection cases of the Quality Protection Commission in 2023-2024.
As a leading intellectual property service team in China, Hiways has always been in the leading position in the industry in terms of intellectual property litigation and non-litigation business, and a large number of Haihua lawyers who are deeply engaged in intellectual property services have witnessed the rapid development of the intellectual property field in recent years. In recent years, Hiways has represented a series of influential and landmark intellectual property cases at home and abroad, especially good at handling various complex trademark, patent, trade secret and other cases, and has outstanding performance in the industry in recent years, and has been frequently rewarded in the selection of international awards.
The award of being selected as one of the top ten intellectual property protection cases in 2023-2024 by the Quality Insurance Commission demonstrates the professional ability of Hiways Yongtai's intellectual property team recognized by the industry, and is also a great encouragement for Hiways to continuously improve and temper in the field of intellectual property.
Top 10 Intellectual Property Protection Cases of the Quality Assurance Committee in 2023-2024
Mattel's first case of Barbie copyright protection in the first case
Brief facts of the case
At the beginning of 2021, Mattel found a large number of imitation Barbie toys for sale in foreign markets. According to the investigation, Mattel identified Shantou An Lili Toys Industrial Co., Ltd. as the main target of infringement, and Mattel later reported the case to the Jing'an Branch of the Shanghai Municipal Public Security Bureau. In April 2021, the public security arrested five main persons in charge of An Lili's company's production plant and warehouse, and seized more than 40,000 infringing toys involved in the case. In May 2022, the case was transferred to the procuratorate for prosecution on suspicion of copyright infringement by the defendant Zhu, and in June 2023, the procuratorate filed a public prosecution with the court, accusing the two defendants of copyright infringement. After the trial, the court held that the Barbie dolls created by Mattel based on specific creative themes and ideas, after repeated carving and modification, are original three-dimensional art works. For the criminal conviction of non-exact reproduction, the "principle of proportionality" method should be adopted, and a comprehensive judgment should be made based on factors such as the degree of originality of the Barbie series of toys and the proportion of similar elements in the whole, and finally the defendant and its legal representative should be found guilty of copyright infringement. In this case, without a domestic civil judgment confirming the originality of the work, it was directly confirmed through a criminal judgment that the Barbie series of toys is a three-dimensional art work with originality, which is extremely rare in judicial practice. In addition, the procuratorate adopted the method of "proportionality" to accurately determine the reproduction relationship, which provides an idea for the identification of non-one-to-one exact reproduction cases in the future, and is also of first significance for the criminal determination of civil and criminal cases of copyright infringement.
Process the results
The two defendants were sentenced to a fine of 50,000 yuan for copyright infringement and sentenced to a fine of 50,000 yuan for Shantou An Lili Toys Industry Co., Ltd., and a two-year prison sentence with a two-year suspended sentence and a fine of 50,000 yuan.
Brief introduction of the undertaking lawyer
Tang Lanxiang
Hiways Senior Partner (Limited Interest)
Ms. Tang Lanxiang received her LL.M. from East China University of Political Science and Law and was a visiting scholar at the University of California, Berkeley (2019-2020). Mr. Tang specializes in global intellectual property deployment, investigations, civil litigation and criminal crackdowns. Her clients are mainly multinational corporations, including Mattel, Lotus, Adidas, Amazon, ALUK, NXP, Siemens and other well-known enterprises. She also provides a full range of intellectual property layout and rights protection services for brands such as Ultraman, Hatsune Miku, and Inuyasha. Mr. Tang has demonstrated solid professional skills and clear representation ideas in a number of trademark and unfair competition cases, software works and literary copyright infringement cases, and several of his cases have been rated as one of the top ten typical cases of the year by some third-party independent institutions.
Top 10 Intellectual Property Protection Cases of the Quality Assurance Committee in 2023-2024
Prevent the dilution of the name "Minions".
Brief facts of the case
In June 2023, the rights holder, Universal Company, discovered that an e-commerce platform (hereinafter referred to as "Company A") had used the Minion logo on the "Yellow Watermelon" sold on the APP operated by Universal without the authorization of Universal Company, and Company A claimed that the "Minion" logo had been diluted to a generic name in "Yellow Soil Watermelon". Later, in order to stop the infringement, the right holder defended its rights through a lawyer's letter and an administrative complaint, and finally the Pudong Market Supervision Bureau issued an Administrative Guidance to Company A and required it to sign a letter of commitment.
Process the results
Company A finally admitted the infringement, stopped the infringement, and signed a letter of commitment not to infringe again, and the Shanghai Pudong New Area Administration for Market Regulation issued an administrative guide, confirming that the Minion movie name and character name were well-known, confirming that Company A's behavior had the potential to be confusing and was not conducive to the market order of fair competition, and put forward specific suggestions and measures for improvement. (Hai Chinese)
Brief introduction of the undertaking lawyer
Huang Jianlin
Senior partner of Hiways Yongtai
Lawyer Huang Jianlin is a senior partner of Hiways Yongtai Head Office, deputy director of the Intellectual Property Commission, supervisor of the Supervisory Committee of the head office, concurrently invited researcher of the Intellectual Property Research Center of Fudan University, part-time master supervisor of Fudan University Law School, expert of Shanghai International Trade Intellectual Property Overseas Rights Protection Service Base, arbitrator of Tianjin Arbitration Commission, master tutor of Shanghai University of Political Science and Law, etc. Mr. Huang Jianlin currently serves most of his clients in multinational corporations and in different fields, and has extensive experience in conducting difficult and complex intellectual property litigation in courts across China, formulating rights protection strategies, handling various investigations initiated by government departments, conducting various commercial negotiations and handling various dispute resolution cases. Mr. Huang has represented many landmark cases in the industry, and his cases have been selected as one of the top ten cases of the Supreme People's Court and the top ten cases of provincial people's courts.
Editor: Qin Zheng