Wei Nian response: Received a notice of court litigation, and communicated with Li Ziqi about the shares a year ago but there was no substantive progress

On November 1, Wei Nian Company officially responded to the dispute with Li Ziqi, which is also the first time that Wei Nian has publicly spoken out in the three months since Li Ziqi stopped. Wei Nian said that today he officially received a lawsuit from the Intermediate People's Court of Mianyang City, Sichuan Province. As early as more than a year ago, Weian Company proposed the direction of Li Jiajia's ("Li Ziqi") equity plan and cooperation model, and signed an agreement on relevant share arrangements and cooperation costs with the consent of shareholders, and we have communicated with Ms. Li Jiajia on equity and other equity matters on many occasions, but there has been no substantive progress, which eventually led to the current situation. Wei Nian is willing to conduct continuous and frank communication on the content of cooperation between the two sides, cooperation methods and other issues, and continue to move forward hand in hand.

Li Ziqi, who is mainly based on Chinese-style videos, has not updated his videos for more than three months. On July 14, 2021, after Li Ziqi released the video content of the final article "Well Salt" of "Chai Rice Oil Salt Sauce Vinegar Tea", it was never updated. On August 30, she published another dynamic "Early in the morning to report a police", followed by a message "Has been saved by the lawyer, too terrible!" Capital is really a good means" after the seconds deleted. At this point, the contradiction between Li Ziqi and the MCN agency Micro-Nian has been completely made public. According to the information of Tianyancha, on October 25, Sichuan Ziqi Culture Communication Co., Ltd. added information on the filing of a new case, and the defendants in the first instance were Hangzhou Weinian Brand Management Co., Ltd. and Liu Tongming.

It is reported that on July 3, Hangzhou Weian completed a new round of strategic financing, this round of new investors for ByteDance, as well as the old shareholders Huaxing New Economy Fund, Chunbi Qiushi, Huaying Capital, the valuation has reached 5 billion yuan. However, due to a dispute between Li Ziqi and the contracted company Weinian, ByteDance, one of The shareholders of Weinian, has started the withdrawal process on October 16. On October 27, the trademarks of Li Ziqi applied for by Wei Nian were rejected, and the status of the trademark process was changed to invalid, pending rejection and review.

The two sides have not spoken out publicly. Until November 1, Wei Nian officially issued a statement, saying that recently, the matter of Sichuan Ziqi Cultural Communication Co., Ltd. v. Hangzhou Wei Nian Brand Management Co., Ltd. has attracted widespread attention from the outside world, and rumors and reports about the IP and brand of "Li Ziqi" have appeared one after another. Wei Nian Company in line with the original intention of protecting the IP and brand of "Li Ziqi", has never responded, today (November 1, 2021), we officially received a notice of litigation from the Intermediate People's Court of Mianyang City, Sichuan Province, the company will respond to the lawsuit in accordance with legal procedures, and make the following explanations:

Founded in 2013, WeChat became a full partner of Weibo MCN in 2016, and cooperated with Ms. Li Jiajia in the same year to jointly incubate the "Li Ziqi" IP and brand in the form of MCN company.

In 2016, mr. Liu Tongming, the founder of the company, had in-depth communication with Ms. Li Jiajia, and finally established the cooperation model between the two parties: Ms. Li Jiajia was responsible for content creation and release, and WeNian Company was responsible for operating and exploring business models. With mutual recognition and persistence, the company and "Li Ziqi" IP rejected the opportunity and temptation to quickly monetize through advertising, and invested their energy in their own brands, hoping to have a continuous and non-consumption of IP income guarantee development while spreading culture. After 5 years of entrepreneurship, Wei Nian has gradually grown from an MCN company to a new consumer goods company of oriental food culture today.

Since the cooperation between the two sides, in order to ensure a peaceful creative environment, the company has never interfered with Ms. Li Jiajia's content creation, nor has it ever thought of or controlled any relevant platform account of @Li Ziqi. Ms. Li Jiajia is talented in content creation, and her interpretation of traditional Chinese culture has touched hundreds of millions of netizens, and has made irreplaceable contributions to the ip and brand shaping of "Li Ziqi". Wei Nian Company has worked hard in brand planning, IP operation and promotion, capital investment, product research and development, building supply chains and sales channels, and finally let the common dream of both parties step by step to reality.

Wei Nian Company knows that it is very fortunate to be able to meet and cooperate with Ms. Li Jiajia on the road of entrepreneurship. Because of this, the company cherishes this friendship and cherishes the "Li Ziqi" IP and brand. As early as more than a year ago, WeIan Company proposed Ms. Li Jiajia's equity plan and cooperation model direction, and signed an agreement on relevant share arrangements and cooperation costs with the consent of shareholders, we have communicated with Ms. Li Jiajia on equity and other equity matters many times, but there has been no substantial progress, which eventually leads to the current situation, and Wei Nian Company is responsible.

Even now, Wei Nian Company and Ms. Li Jiajia still maintain a high degree of consistency in the concept of discovering a better life and spreading Chinese culture at home and abroad. The company is willing to continue to communicate frankly on the content of cooperation between the two sides, the way of cooperation and other issues, and sincerely hopes that both sides can untie the knot and continue to move forward hand in hand.

All along, Wei Nian has been a focused start-up company, has no intention of occupying more public resources, and knows the responsibility behind it. It is not easy to start a business, it is even more difficult to shape a brand, "Plum Ziqi" IP and brand is still in the growth stage, no matter what the result, Wei Nian Company sincerely hopes that "Plum Ziqi" IP and brand can continue to help the world spread of traditional Chinese culture.

For the past cooperation, our common efforts, Wei Nian has always been uncomplaining and regretless to thank everyone for their concern.

Text/Beijing Youth Daily reporter Wen Jing

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