The news of the death of Mr. Zong Qinghou, the founder and chairman of Wahaha Group, due to illness has caused a great shock in the society, especially in the business world. Ma Yun, Chen Dongsheng, Lei Jun, Li Shufu, Zhou Hongyi and many other well-known entrepreneurs have issued messages to express their condolences and commemoration.
The longest life of a person is no more than 100 years. However, from the perspective of the brand, the life of a trademark brand can be continuously extended from generation to generation.
At present, the trademark brands with the longest history that are well-known in the Chinese market are: "Ma Yinglong" eye medicine (founded in the Wanli period of the Ming Dynasty) from this year, and "Tong Ren Tang" traditional Chinese medicine (founded in the eighth year of the Kangxi Dynasty of the Qing Dynasty) from this year.
Many people don't know that the "Wahaha" trademark brand, which was registered in the year, was almost snatched away by the French multinational Danone Group. This is the classic case of international business warfare that has had the greatest impact since the years of reform and opening up, the "Dawa Dispute."
In the year, the Wahaha company founded by Zong Qinghou planned to expand the national market, but its own financial strength was not enough. At this time, the global food industry giant Danone extended an olive branch and established a joint venture with Wahaha, and Danone invested 10,000 US dollars and 10,000 yuan for the trademark transfer, accounting for the shares of the joint venture company, and Wahaha Group held the shares.
Wahaha and Danone signed the Trademark Transfer Agreement. At this time, with the wisdom of Zhejiang businessmen, Zong Qinghou left a back hand and retained the right of self-determination for the final transfer of the Wahaha trademark in the process of Wahaha trademark transfer. As a result, the transfer failed, and the two parties signed the "Trademark License Contract" again in the same year.
In the following years, Wahaha's non-joint ventures across the country continued to use the Wahaha trademark, and their business performance was booming.
In January, Danone requested to acquire the equity of Wahaha's non-joint venture company with a net asset of 100 million yuan, which was strongly resisted by Wahaha. At this point, the "Dawa dispute", which was widely concerned by the business community, broke out.
In January, Danone officially launched legal proceedings against Wahaha. Since then, the two sides have engaged in dozens of domestic and foreign lawsuits, and Wahaha has won many battles. It is commendable that in these litigation battles, the support attitude of the relevant domestic departments for national brands is quite clear.
On the same day, Danone and Wahaha issued a statement saying that they had reached a settlement. Danone agreed to sell its stake in the joint venture for RMB100 million. Wahaha won the final victory - the Wahaha trademark is firmly in the hands of the Chinese themselves!
As we all know, since the reform and opening up, it is not uncommon for foreign investors to acquire well-known trademarks and brands in the Chinese market and finally enter the cold palace.
Pepsi-Cola acquired the domestic brand Tianfu Cola, Procter & Gamble acquired the domestic brand Panda laundry detergent, Unilever acquired the domestic brand Zhonghua toothpaste, Henkel acquired the domestic brand Baby Noodles, Mechanics & Permanent acquired the domestic brand Vitality, and Boxihua acquired the domestic brand Yangtze Refrigerator ......
These once-famous domestic brands have now disappeared or lost their reputation in the market.
What is suffocating is that the tragic drama of foreign capital's attempt to kill China's local trademark brands is still being staged in the current reality.
The author of this article has published the "Case Statement" article "Cherry Blossom Robbery: The Tragic Story of Jiangcheng's "Cherry Blossoms" Falling into Hangzhou", which was published in today's headlines on xx, and xx, and described in detail the origin of this strange trademark litigation case.
A Sakura Kitchen (China) Company in Kunshan, Jiangsu Province, which is controlled by Japan Noh Rate Co., Ltd., has filed an opposition and invalidation lawsuit against the registered trademark of "Sakura" held by Wuhan Sakura Times White Goods on the grounds of trademark infringement since the beginning of the year, and the retrial judicial procedure of the case has been accepted by the Supreme People's Court of the People's Republic of China.
There are three "wonderful" aspects of the "Sakura" trademark dispute case:
One of the wonders: Kunshan "Sakura" class registered kitchen and bathroom trademarks and Wuhan "Sakura" class registered household appliance trademarks are both "well-known trademarks". This is the first case in the history of Chinese trademarks in the history of Chinese trademarks to exclude and hunt down other well-known trademarks across classes.
Strange two: From the year to October, whether it was the State Intellectual Property Office, the Beijing Intellectual Property Court, the Beijing High People's Court, and even the Supreme People's Court of the People's Republic of China, the Beijing Municipal High Court Trial and Supervision Division entrusted a retrial, all of which did not support Kunshan Sakura's claim, and ruled or ruled in accordance with the law that the exclusive right to use the registered trademark "Sakura" in Wuhan was maintained. However, a year later, the Zhejiang Provincial High People's Court, in its Civil Judgments, ignored the previous judgments and rulings of the people's courts at all levels (including the Ningbo Intermediate People's Court) and ruled that the Wuhan "Sakura" trademark was similar to Kunshan's "Sakura", infringing the exclusive right to use the trademark of Sakura Kitchen Company. The Zhejiang Provincial High Court's final civil judgment overturned the Supreme People's Court's entrustment of the Beijing Municipal High Court's trial supervision division to retry the final administrative judgment, which is rare in the history of civil and administrative litigation in China.
Strange three: Wuhan Sakura Company, which has used the "Sakura" trademark in the market for many years and has maintained normal production and operation, lost to Kunshan Sakura Company, which has been constantly complaining about the quality of goods and its business conditions are declining, because of a civil judgment of the Zhejiang High Court, and is about to start the enterprise bankruptcy procedure in the face of a huge compensation of more than 10,000 yuan. The washing machine and refrigerator brand "Sakura", which once bloomed in the urban and rural areas of the motherland, is about to wither. The tragedy of bad money in the market driving out good money is really contrary to the current policy of the state to make great efforts to ensure economic stability.
Kunshan Sakura Kitchen and Bathroom Company, which is controlled by Japan's Noh Co., Ltd., is trying by all means to take the "Sakura" brand of Chinese household appliances held by Wuhan Sakura Company as its own, and its interest plot is nothing more than to suppress dissidents of well-known trademarks and eliminate commercial rivals.
In fact, the repeated offensive and defensive battles between the two sides of the Sakura trademark are by no means as simple as ordinary trademark disputes, and it is related to the emotions and positions of the survival and decline of national and local brands.
Mr. Zong Qinghou's business wisdom and determination to protect the Wahaha trademark from falling into the hands of foreign enterprises in those years are not only enlightening for the majority of business operators in China, but also instructive for China's trademark administrative authorities and judicial authorities at all levels.
From the perspective of trademark intellectual property rights, the improvement of the guardianship awareness of national trademark brands may be the best commemoration of Mr. Zong Qinghou today. (Wen Zhoujian).