Text/Bingying Wang
Since the opening of the park, Universal Studios has remained popular: in the internal testing stage alone, the tickets were speculated to 5,000 yuan or more; when the park officially opened on September 20, the tickets sold out in less than 1 minute; during the National Day holiday, it continued to be popular, according to the statistics of the Beijing Bureau of Culture and Tourism, the number of people entering the park from October 1 to 4 alone exceeded 100,000.
Attracting a large number of tourists is the scenic spot built on the world's top IP lineup. Unlike Disney, Universal Studios' development of IP is more independent, and even most of the scenic spots are directly named after IP - Harry Potter's Wizarding World, Transformers Base, Minion Paradise, Kung Fu Panda Gaishi, Jurassic Century Nubra Island, etc.
Image from the web
Among them, the theme scenic spot of "Harry Potter's Wizarding World", which is jokingly called "Hogwarts Tongzhou Branch" by the majority of netizens, and the Transformers "Wei Zhentian", which has quickly become popular on the Network with the attribute of "Talking", have undoubtedly become the most eye-catching existence in the entire scenic spot.
Today, we will talk about the super IP of Harry Potter.
<h1 class="pgc-h-decimal" data-index="01" data-track="14" > "an IP holds up a paradise"? </h1>
At 9:18 a.m. on the first day of the National Day holiday, on the official Mini Program and APP of Universal Beijing Resort, the queue time of the 4D experience project "Harry Potter Forbidden Journey" project has reached 120 minutes, while at this time, the "Minion Haunting" project only needs to wait for 25 minutes, and the Transformers "Tinder Battle" project only needs to wait 50 minutes.
Countless tourists at the moment of opening the park, directly without turning their heads directly to the Harry Potter scenic spot; in the park, tourists wearing wizarding robes abound; in the relevant po articles about Universal Studios such as Little Red Book, Harry Potter related content occupies half of the country; the shops selling souvenirs around Harry Potter continue to be popular, and the magic wand with a price of more than 300 yuan has almost become a must-have for everyone...
Whether in terms of attracting traffic or derivative conversion, Harry Potter is second to none among Universal Studios' many IP, and it can even be said that just by virtue of the Harry Potter IP, it is enough to support an entire amusement park.
How powerful is the Harry Potter IP? According to incomplete statistics, the total global box office revenue of the Harry Potter series of films has exceeded 7.8 billion US dollars; the seven Harry Potter novels have sold 450 million copies worldwide, ranking among the world's best-selling novels, and sales have exceeded the total box office. In addition, relevant data show that after mattel, Lego and Hasbro, the world's three major toy manufacturers obtained the rights to the peripheral development of Harry Potter, the income from the peripheral development of such derivatives was as high as 70% to 80% of the profit of the series of movies.
<h1 class="pgc-h-decimal" data-index="02" data-track="137" > magic of intellectual property</h1>
Behind Harry Potter's enduring and monumental commercial success, intellectual property undoubtedly plays an extremely important part in contrast to many of the same short-lived but short-lived IPs.
J.K. Rowling, the author of the original Harry Potter novel, initially sold the rights to the first Harry Potter novel, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, to a publisher for $100,000, and then sold the film adaptation rights to Warner Bros. for $1 million, and EA Games received the rights to adapt the game.
In 2002, at a franchise show in California, 80 companies bought Harry Potter franchises from Warner, involving more than 2,000 goods, this time bringing warner about $1 billion in revenue.
In 2016, NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast Group, acquired J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter and Fantastic Beasts franchises for $200 million from Warner Bros. for a seven-year contract that took effect in July 2018. Universal's "Wizarding World of Harry Potter" scenic spot was based on Universal's acquisition of the above-mentioned franchise.
In addition to the opening of theme amusement parks, in recent years, harry potter IP has continued to exert efforts in the domestic market.
On June 19, 2020, Bubble Mart, a well-known domestic tide play company, obtained the authorization of Warner and launched the Harry Potter series blind box, which combined the Harry Potter IP and the domestic tide play for the first time, triggering a lot of buying by Ha fans.
In addition, clothing brands such as PEACEBIRD and SPAO have also been authorized by Warner and have launched a series of co-branded clothing since 2019, including scarves, socks, sweatshirts, cardigans, etc.
At the same time, video games are also a major source of income for the Harry Potter IP. The recent hit card game "Harry Potter Magical Awakening" was jointly developed by Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment and NetEase, and was authorized by Warner Bros., the copyright holder of the Harry Potter movie. Since the launch of the game on September 9, the iOS side of the turnover has reached 17.44 million yuan, related topics read as high as 230 million, in the major app stores download volume peaked, and continued to dominate the list for many days.
Harry Potter Magic Awakening mobile game interface
Although the game's popularity remains high, it has also attracted the dissatisfaction of some players, especially fans of the original: the routine Kryptonite gold, the 148 yuan gold satin gift box suspected of false publicity, and the cards that do not respect the values of the original book (such as players can use the unforgivable spells in the original Harry Potter series in the game, use the echo of the Dark Wizard to summon death eaters, and enter and exit the forbidden forest that is forbidden in the original book at will).
Although the current reputation of the game is more seriously divided, Harry Potter Magic Awakening is undoubtedly a successful case from a commercial point of view.
In fact, Harry Potter Magic Awakening wasn't the first Harry Potter game. As early as 2001, when the first film was released, Warner and EA released the single-player game "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone", and since then, 8 works have been released in the order of the film.
In 2018, the mobile game "Harry Potter: The Mystery of Hogwarts" developed by Los Angeles mobile game studio Jam City had more than 2 million players registered at the reservation stage, and after its launch, it topped the iOS game free list in 68 countries or regions in Europe and the United States. According to public information, as of April 2021, the game's total revenue exceeded $300 million.
This year has been a decade since the last Harry Potter film work, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Part 2), but the Harry Potter IP revenue has been very impressive, thanks to a strong derivatives industry chain, covering games, toys, IP theme parks and other aspects.
The continuous revenue of IP is also inseparable from the protection of intellectual property rights.
<h1 class="pgc-h-decimal" data-index="03" data-track="138" > add a "patron saint spell" to intellectual property</h1>
The Patronus Charm is a famous defensive spell in the Harry Potter series that can be used to drive away Dementors' attacks. The Harry Potter IP has been able to thrive, but also thanks to the copyright owner's strong awareness of intellectual property protection, constantly expelling the "ghosts" that may damage the IP image and interests, cracking down on piracy, protecting the brand, Harry Potter IP can be evergreen, it can be said that this is the harry potter IP is the real "patron saint curse".
Specifically, J.K. Rowling, the original author of the Harry Potter series of novels, and Warner Bros., the film producer, have extensively registered trademarks and copyrights for the works of the Harry Potter and Fantastic Beasts series, ensuring a solid foundation of rights; at the same time, in order to curb infringement, they have carried out rights protection activities around the world to defend their legal rights.
Here are three examples to take a look at the copyright owner's maintenance of the Harry Potter IP.
Harry Potter Dictionary infringement
On October 31, 2007, Rowling joined forces with Warner Bros. Pictures in a court in Manhattan, New York, to demand that RDR Publishing House in Michigan stop publishing its unauthorized compilation of the Harry Potter Dictionary.
The dictionary is an encyclopedic reference for the Harry Potter series of novels, including a variety of information about the Harry Potter novel and its author Rowling, as well as articles and materials posted by fans on the site, such as a list of spells, an index of magical creatures, and a who's who in the wizarding world.
The Harry Potter Dictionary is a compilation work, but the premise of publication and distribution of the compilation work is to obtain the authorization of the copyright owner and pay a certain remuneration to the copyright owner. The unauthorized publication of the Harry Potter Dictionary was ultimately found to constitute infringement in the Manhattan District Court in New York, and Rowling received $6,780 in damages.
· Hong Kong restaurants infringe on the use of Harry Potter props
In 2019, a Hong Kong coffee shop called "9 3/4 Cafe" was sued by Warner Bros. For infringement, and Warner Bros. asked the Hong Kong High Court to issue an injunction prohibiting the restaurant from continuing to infringe and demanding damages from the restaurant.
The café has been open since 2017 and is modeled after scenes from the Harry Potter films, such as "Half a luggage trolley crashes into a wall." On the menu, there are "butter beer", "truth-telling agent", "transformed into water" and so on that appeared in the Harry Potter movies.
Warner Bros. argued that the restaurant's use of the movie "Harry Potter" as the theme of the restaurant, the name of the restaurant, the name of the dish and the design of the store, etc., infringed its Chinese and English trademarks registered in Hong Kong, and the copyright of the artwork, including Hogwarts, Hagrid, Muggle, Harry Potter-Phoenix Secret Order and HARRYPOTTER.
The restaurant closed after being sued and a notice was posted on the gate stating that "this restaurant is in partnership with Warner Bros. Entertainment or Harry Potter or J.K. Rowling, it doesn't matter."
It can be seen from the case that the café's unauthorized use of Warner Bros. registered trademarks and works of art for commercial purposes largely exceeds the scope of "fair use" and is likely to constitute infringement to the right holder.
· Harry Potter Halibot and Figure Trademark Invalidation Case
On November 26, 2015, Jiangchuan Huisheng Commercial Co., Ltd. registered the Harry Potter Haribote and Figure Trademark No. 18436154 (hereinafter referred to as the "Disputed Trademark") on Category 5 "Medical Nutritional Food, Nutritional Supplements, Baby Food, Baby Milk Powder, Baby Diapers, Baby Diapers, Human Drugs" and other goods.
Images of the disputed trademark
Warner Bros. Entertainment (the "Applicant") filed an invalidation request for the Trademark, arguing that the registration of the disputed trademark infringed its rights and interests in the proprietary names and Chinese commodification rights of well-known goods (films) enjoyed by Harry POTTER and its translation of Harry Potter, in violation of Article 32 of the Trademark Act.
After trial, the TRAB held that Warner Bros. Entertainment was the producer of the Harry Potter series of film and television works, and that the Harry Potter series of novels and films had been widely promoted and broadcast in the Chinese mainland before the date of the disputed trademark application, and had a high reputation.
The distinctive identifier of the disputed trademark is exactly the same as the protagonist name of the applicant's above-mentioned well-known film and television works, such as Harry Potter, and its approved use on "nutritional supplements, baby food, baby diapers" and other goods is likely to mislead the relevant consumers into believing that the above goods are related to or have been authorized by the applicant for the well-known series of film and television works.
Therefore, the registration and use of the disputed trademark may improperly borrow the business reputation enjoyed by the applicant based on its series of film and television works, squeeze out the market advantage position and trading opportunities enjoyed by the applicant based on its series of film and television works, and damage the prior rights and interests enjoyed by the applicant based on the name of the protagonist in its series of film and television works, which has constituted a situation of harming the existing prior rights of others as stipulated in Article 32 of the Trademark Law, so the TRAB invalidated the disputed trademark.
It can be seen from the above that the Harry Potter IP has been able to flourish for a long time and has obtained huge commercial returns, both due to the unique charm of the work itself and the unremitting development and utilization of Harry Potter derivatives over the years, on the other hand, it is also inseparable from the continuous derivative development of intellectual property rights and the continuous protection of intellectual property rights.
Perhaps, without Warner Bros. and J.K. Rowling's protection of the Harry Potter IP for many years, perhaps today's Beijing would have missed a Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry Tongzhou, and a group of "wizards" wearing wizarding robes, holding wands, and drinking butter beer.
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"Zhou Gongguan Entertainment" is produced by an elite team of lawyers led by Zhou Junwu, senior partner of Beijing Jincheng Tongda Law Firm.
Zhou Junwu's team is mainly engaged in intellectual property and civil and commercial dispute resolution and other legal business, and has extremely rich experience in cultural entertainment, film and television games, Internet and other fields, and is one of the earliest and leading professional entertainment law teams in China.
Mr. Chow Chun-wu's honors include:
Chambers and Partners' Asia Pacific Legal Guide "Media & Entertainment" (2020 & 2021)
Asialaw Profiles Asia Legal Leading Lawyers List "Media and Entertainment" (2022)
LEGALBAND China Leading Lawyer in Sports and Entertainment (2014-2021)
The First Cultural and Entertainment Rule of Law Awards "Outstanding Entertainment Lawyers" (2020)
Thomson Reuters ALB Top 15 Litigation Lawyers in China (2019)
Thomson Reuters ALB China Top 15 TMT Lawyers (2019)
China Business Law Journal's Recommended Team of Outstanding Lawyers in Entertainment and Sports (2016)
Beijing Outstanding Intellectual Property Lawyer (2013)
【Disclaimer】The content of this article belongs to the personal views of the author and does not represent the legal opinion of Beijing Jincheng Tongda Law Firm on relevant issues. If you need legal advice or expert advice, seek targeted answers from qualified individuals
(Editor: Chen Guanqi)