Wen Yi
Edited by Chen Meixi
Recently, Dong Yuhui's small essay turmoil has been disturbed, and the serial drama suspected of "Oriental Selection Infighting" has been staged for many days.
At three o'clock in the afternoon on December 17th, the Western Reserve issued the first **, an anchor who looked like Dong Yuhui said that he "came to the Western Reserve Live Room", which started that night, with more than 40,000 people. In the early morning, Western Reserve said that the number of premieres has exceeded one million, and the live broadcast will continue at ten o'clock tomorrow night.
But the Western Reserve did not wait for its "tomorrow night", and the young man who was selected to be selected for the high-imitation anchor station because he looked like Dong Yuhui did not have time to introduce his name. On the morning of the 18th, after being on the hot search on Weibo one after another, Western Reserve was quickly banned.
The relevant person in charge of the platform said that the account involved counterfeiting and counterfeiting, and the live broadcast permission will be withdrawn, the improper acquisition of fans will be erased, and its profit-making permission will be cancelled.
But on the other hand, Southern Selection, Northern Selection, Dongpo Selection and Oriental Selection have not been banned and are still operating normally, intellectual property lawyer Yuan Wenyan told himHedgehog Commune (ID: Ciweigongshe)."To put it simply, you can have similar names or look the same, but you can't look like them and call them by this name, which involves unfair competition, and more importantly, if the anchor's behavior and activity content are consistent with Dongfang Selection, it constitutes copyright infringement, so it is not surprising that he was banned by the platform." ”
In the new cottage era, technology is changing with each passing day, and even the way of copycat is also accompanied by "content upgrading". It is not uncommon to imitate names, appearances, and logos, and the latest version of the story is that the Thai copycat version of Luckin that has stolen the Luckin trademark has come to claim the genuine version.
On the morning of December 20, the Weibo topic Thailand Luckin claimed 10 billion baht (2 billion yuan) from China's Luckin on the hot search, and soon, Luckin responded to this matter with a Thai word, shouting Thailand Luckin: "I can't understand, but I'm shocked."
In fact, the lawsuit dispute between Thailand Luckin and China Luckin began very early. As early as 2019, Thailand Luckin has successfully registered the name "Luckin Coffee" in Thailand, not only the name is the same, from the store logo to the coffee taste, it is the same as China Luckin. On Xiaohongshu, many netizens said that they drank Luckin in Thailand, and except for the copywriting in Thai and English, everything else is the same as Luckin.
In fact, if you look closely, you will find that the fawn head of Luckin is looking to the right, while the fawn head of Thai Luckin is turned to the left, and this is the only difference between the two. Here, the Hedgehog Commune would like to add a BGM to this dispute - "Left to Right" sung by Malaysian singer Mr. Guangliang.
Image source network. With such an open plagiarism, Luckin took Thai Luckin (Royal Thai 50R Group) to court with a backhand, and successfully won the first lawsuit in 2021.
However, Luckin's road to rights protection is not over, Thailand Luckin did not accept the verdict and resubmitted the lawsuit, and on December 1, 2023, Luckin Coffee's trademark infringement case ended in defeat.
After seeking confirmation from an intellectual property lawyer, the Hedgehog Commune also confirmed that Thailand's Luckin was not plagiarized in the local law, but when Luckin had no plans to go overseas to Southeast Asia, it planned in advance, which was at most an act of preemptively registering a trademark.
Then the absurdity happened, after winning the lawsuit, Thailand's Luckin asked the court to order China's Luckin to compensate it for economic losses of 10 billion baht. (2 billion RMB).
Yuan Wenyan told the Hedgehog Commune: "The so-called 10 billion is calculated in this way, first of all, China Luckin has damaged the business reputation of the Royal Thai 50R Group and delayed its listing process, and they claim that this part of the loss should be borne by Luckin in total, a total of 9 billion baht;."Secondly, after the preliminary trial, Luckin forcibly seized the property in the store, for which 50R Group demanded compensation99.5 billion baht;Finally, as a result of Luckin's allegations, the 5 million baht that 50R Group hired for its lawyers and legal advisers should also be paid by Luckin. ”
At present, the court has filed a case to accept it, and the final verdict is not yet known, but since December, Luckin has repeatedly appeared on the hot search because of this matter, earned enough voice on the Chinese Internet, established the "grievance" persona, won wider sympathy and support, and can be regarded as a wave of passers-by after Thailand's Luckin infringement.
Not only Luckin Coffee, but also Chef Bao, a Chinese pastry chain, is also in the midst of a struggle against counterfeiters.
Sun Jia, an international student in London, said that the long-awaited "Master Bao" finally started its trial operation on December 2, and that day was Saturday. She spent 29 pounds to buy 8 small shells, which is equivalent to 32 yuan for a small shell$5.
After a careful tasting, she told the Hedgehog Commune: "The meat floss is very crispy, the cake body is delicate and soft, and the custard sauce is sweet. Compared with Chef Bao in China, the overall size is on the small side, but the amount of sauce is still sufficient. It may be because the prices and labor costs abroad are too high. ”
At this time, Sun Jia didn't know that Master Bao, who was on the streets of London, was a complete impostor, and she also asked her roommate to go again after the official business, and when she posted Master Bao's evaluation in London on Xiaohongshu, she was told by netizens that this Master Bao was a fake, and her own promotion was to make a wedding dress for a fake.
Her first reaction was more shocked than angry, from the storefront, variety, taste to packaging materials, London Chef Bao is very similar to **, so people can't find fault with it. Not only that, on the eve of the trial opening of the copycat Master Bao, some amateur bloggers can often be swiped on Xiaohongshu to promote it, and the posters are fake and real.
Source: Little Red Book.
Despite this, some consumers said that they don't mind copycat stores, as long as the taste and food safety can be guaranteed. Sun Jia told the Hedgehog Commune: "Thank God for being able to eat Chef Bao in the UK, we are actually quite afraid that this store will go out of business, if only Chef Bao could open a store overseas earlier." ”
As Sun Jia said, going overseas is very important for consumer brands, whether they have the strength to go overseas or not, they need to have an international vision, as long as they register international trademarks in advance, then they will not be too passive when they are infringed.
Institutions and brands that do not go overseas also need to understand the trademark law and attach importance to intellectual property rights, otherwise they may not only infringe but directly "lose their name". In this year's crazy marketing wave of old domestic products brought by bee flowers, the brand "meticulous" that was remembered by passers-by for "losing its name" is a typical case in the beauty industry.
"Meticulous" is a cosmetics brand developed and authorized by Beijing, but because the trademark "Concord" has long been preemptively registered, it can only be renamed "Meticulous", and it has been ridiculed by many netizens that "I have always thought that Meticulous sells MSG".
Image source: Xiaohongshu account @ Meticulous Concord Skin Care Products.
For a long time, "Xiehe" has been the hardest hit area of cottage hospitals, ** data, as early as 2018, there were more than 1,700 hospitals with the name of "Xiehe" in the country, and after deleting the non-medical units and former names, there are still 389 left, which is still a huge project for rights protection, compared to huge profits and insignificant fines, Xiehe can only be forced to change its name.
Famous brands and hot spots have always been stubborn diseases growing in the gray area.
There was an Internet celebrity Lu Ha with a high imitation star in the past, and he earned 35 million in seven months;Later, the copycat anchor "Grumpy Brother Xiaopeng" became the doppelganger of Crazy Brother Yang on the ** number, and made an all-round 1:1 reproduction of Brother Xiao Yang's dress, twin identity, and background in the live broadcast room;Even in northwest China, a small county town with four or fifth tiers, Sprite and Leibi, Nongfu Spring and Nongfu Bandit will appear on the shelves at the same time.
On social **, there are often netizens who comment sharply on their own experience of being fooled, hiding from the cottage all their lives, avoiding Kang Shuaibo and Lei Bi, and finally losing to "Yunnan Traditional Chinese Medicine".
Screenshot of Xiaohongshu.
On the Internet, copycat anchors and high-imitation celebrities have been repeatedly banned;In real life, copycat brands and trademark squabbling occur from time to time, and high-imitation accounts are all profitable businesses, and under the dividends, they are pouring into the nest, and even breed professional squatters and benchmark accounts.
Behind this, it seems to be a mature training, account raising, or consignment sale of short** account industry chain, Banyuetan once commented on this: "The rectification of high imitation numbers cannot be simply shut down, the key to law enforcement is to dig deep into the complete interest chain behind it, and achieve fundamental governance, so as to avoid the dilemma of whack-a-mole governance." ”
The only thing ordinary people can do is to raise their awareness of prevention, stay vigilant, keep their eyes open, have fun, and exercise their right to supervise and report.