aOne of the world-famous trademark images of the 20th century is a mouse.
In China, there is also a white rabbit that is almost household name.
Today, Mickey Mouse, the animated star with a pair of ears, smart clothes and innocent humor, has already stepped off the screen and become a famous commercial brand. Those big amusement parks all over the world, countless Mickey Mouse Best-selling products named after mice and their companions are creating huge profits for the huge "Disney Empire" every day.
However, the commercial control of the lively, cute, chubby White Rabbit is firmly in the hands of a Chinese company. Shanghai Guanshengyuan Group, which is famous for its production of "White Rabbit Milk Candy", has done an excellent job in protecting, developing and utilizing the "White Rabbit" brand image. It has now applied to register the White Rabbit trademark in more than 100 countries and regions around the world. It has successfully implemented the first step to "seize" the international market and is already ambitiously creating its own "White Rabbit Empire".
Back then, it was Mickey Mouse who prompted the birth of the White Rabbit, and another famous "Mickey Mouse incident" woke the White Rabbit from his dream. The "White Rabbit Story" of Guanshengyuan Company is a vivid process of a Chinese enterprise comprehending and learning advanced business strategies and integrating with international standards in the painful market competition.
To tell the story of the White Rabbit, we have to start with Mickey Mouse.
Before liberation, there was a famous ABC candy factory in Shanghai. The boss Feng Boyong, who was good at doing business, saw that the "Mickey Mouse" cartoon was very popular in Shanghai, especially among children, so he designed With a "Mickey Mouse" package, "ABC Mickey Mouse toffee" suddenly became the best-selling toffee in the country. Boss Feng's idea of ??using cartoon images to do business may have preceded Walt Disney, Mickey Mouse's "biological father". According to records, the establishment of the first Disneyland had to wait until 1955.
After liberation, ABC Candy Factory became a public-private partnership and was renamed "Aimin Candy Factory". It was later merged into Shanghai Guanshengyuan. Its main product was "Mickey Mouse Milk Candy". In the 1950s, the idea of ??worshiping foreigners and favoring foreigners was criticized, and the "elimination of the four pests" emerged in the patriotic health movement at that time. Everyone yells at a mouse crossing the street, so the factory has to worry about the image of "Mickey Mouse toffee". They thought of rabbits, whose lively appearance and kind nature seemed to be a natural "positive image", so they asked Shanghai Art Design Company to design a package with the white rabbit as the core. In 1956, a new brand "White Rabbit Milk Candy" came out, which was immediately favored by consumers. In 1959, it was presented as a gift to the 10th anniversary of the National Day as the result of self-reliance, and exports began immediately. In the following ten years, "White Rabbit Milk Candy" continued to improve its quality and packaging, forming a unique formula and a stable and quality-guaranteing process. It has continued to sell well and has become a specialty product in China. In 1979, "White Rabbit" won the National Silver Award. In 1992, it was rated as the only food brand among China's fourteen well-known trademarks.
However, at that time, due to the outdated concept of planned economy, the "White Rabbit" and its eponymous "Mickey Mouse Toffees" never knew how to seek legal protection. Even when domestic and foreign manufacturers have begun to produce counterfeit products, and "hares" and "wild rats" have emerged to attack and compete for the market, companies have not yet thought of registering their own trademarks. In 1983, a small candy factory in Guangzhou, which only produced hard candies, came to Guanshengyuan in Shanghai to learn from their experience. The masters of Guanshengyuan carefully taught them the technology of producing toffee, and the apprentices began to produce toffee after they returned. , and also "borrowed" a brand image from the master: a Mickey Mouse holding 3 foreign bubbles. Two years later, when Guan Shengyuan thought about registering "Mickey Mouse Toffee", he unexpectedly received a rejection notice. It turned out that the "apprentice" in the south had already registered the master's trademark a few months ago.
Not long after, news came that the Walt Disney Company of the United States bought the small factory in Guangzhou for US$40,000 in order to seize the monopoly of the "Mickey Mouse image" in China. Mickey Mouse logo.
Only then did Guanshengyuan lament that others "don't know how to feel pain if they are not their own children." It was only 40,000 US dollars, which was only tens of thousands of RMB at the exchange rate at the time. However, from ABC Candy Factory to Guanshengyuan, half a century had been devoted to this product. All his hard work was wasted overnight. The Walt Disney Company and Guanshengyuan do not have a "mentor-disciple relationship." He is the legitimate "father" of "Mickey Mouse" and has legitimately regained control of China through normal legal procedures. Guanshengyuan has no choice but to endure the pain. Cutting off love eliminated this famous product with the longest history among Chinese candy brands and the same name as "White Rabbit".
Later, Disney took the initiative to approach Guanshengyuan and stated that it would allow Guanshengyuan to continue to "adopt" Mickey Mouse. However, as a trademark license, the "biological father" demanded 8% of the annual profits. %. The concepts of "industrial property rights", brand awareness, corporate image and other modern business software began to enter the mind of this Chinese company in the form of actual profit figures.
A "Mickey Mouse Storm" Like a heavy hammer, Guanshengyuan was awakened from a dream. Fortunately, the "four pests" of that year gave birth to a "big white rabbit", and thanks to the far-reaching efforts of the Trademark Office of the State Administration for Industry and Commerce. After considering, the registered trademark rights were reserved for the national quality products, and the "White Rabbit" trademark was fortunately registered. A "Mickey Mouse" ran back, but the "White Rabbit" was awakened.
When Guanshengyuan woke up from the dream, the first thing to consider was to protect its "White Rabbit" brand. At that time, counterfeit product infringement of "White Rabbit Toffee" was very rampant, and "White Rabbit" was the most affected brand in Shanghai. One of the most serious brands. Counterfeit products are spread across 17 provinces and cities, including the Philippines and Thailand. In addition to direct counterfeiting, those "hare guerrillas" also use the same or similar words and graphics as the names of their own products. Packaging and decoration, "insinuated infringement"
In response to this situation, Guanshengyuan, who has painstakingly studied "trademark tactics", came up with a clever trick to separate the entire packaging of "White Rabbit Milk Candy". Registered as 8 trademarks, a piece of candy wrapper and any part have legal status. At the same time, more than 10 similar trademarks (including white rabbit, big gray rabbit, big black rabbit, big flower) are organized around the main trademark. Rabbit, small white rabbit, golden rabbit, silver rabbit, etc.), the "White Rabbit" trademark has become a "family trademark group". In view of the fact that packaging and decoration are not protected by trademarks, they can apply for design. Patent, they also came up with a complementary system that combines trademark registration and patent application, forming an open "defense zone" to prevent any "counterfeit guerrillas" from approaching the main trademark. This "three-dimensional defense system" is in the "three-dimensional defense system". It has exerted huge benefits in actual combat. Relying on the protection of trademark laws, Guanshengyuan has discovered and negotiated more than 100 counterfeit infringements against "White Rabbit" since 1983, eliminated nearly 80 cases of infringement, and successfully defended the His own famous brand.
When studying the subject of "trademark", Guan Shengyuan discovered that the main reason for his failure in the "Mickey Mouse War" was a feature of China's trademark law: registered trademarks. Apply first and use later. In other words, registering a trademark in China can be separated from the actual existence of the product. The result of this research was the birth of a "pre-registration" strategy that will be crucial to the development of the entire enterprise.
They realized that "White Rabbit", a trademark that is recognized as having a very high gold content, if it was limited to candies and a specific type of "toffee", it might only be counted as chewing on a "rabbit's paw" ". After three rounds of careful planning by corporate decision-makers and consultants, Guanshengyuan began to register its "White Rabbit" trademark in advance in all areas related to the company's development direction. Now, not only food, clothing, furniture, bicycles, In industries such as watches and clocks, and even in service industries such as catering, communications, banking, and insurance, the White Rabbit trademark has already found its place.
The Disney Company’s monopoly on “Mickey Mouse” also taught “White Rabbit” to “grab” overseas. Since the "Mickey Mouse Crisis" occurred in 1985, although Guanshengyuan did not have self-operated export rights at that time, they have begun to spend a large amount of foreign exchange to register the "White Rabbit" trademark overseas. First in the Chinese-inhabited areas, and later it was proposed that "every country on the map, the 'White Rabbit' will jump to there", and the "White Rabbit" trademark was registered in advance to all actual and potential exporting countries and regions, seeking to " White Rabbit” legal protection.
Today, Guanshengyuan has obtained the registration certificate of "White Rabbit" in more than 20 member countries of the "Madrid Agreement" on industrial intellectual property rights and more than 70 other countries and regions. The excellent trademark strategy enabled Guanshengyuan to have a strong brand awareness early among domestic enterprises. It is this awareness that made the company's decision-makers begin to consciously use a long-term strategic perspective to view the company's business. business. The bosses of Guanshengyuan discovered that in that thick pile of trademark materials, the territory of a future "White Rabbit Empire" had begun to take shape. At the same time, they also realized that the advanced trademark registration only recharged the "white rabbit". The next step was to make the rabbit "light up" throughout China and even the world.
According to the changing times, they started to reshape the rabbit. The "white rabbit" of the past was just a rabbit squatting on the candy paper. In the era of planned economy, it never thought of changing its posture. After some careful design, a new "White Rabbit" trademark was born, with a jumping rabbit as the main body and a big mushroom as the background. This famous rabbit packaging has not only renewed people's favor for old brands in China. Americans regard the lively jumping rabbit on the Chinese canned White Rabbit toffee as a symbol of resurrection and the mascot of Easter, and they rush to buy it. Then, 20 more cute images of cartoon rabbits were created, including singing, dancing, boating, fishing, driving motorcycles, hunting, archery, golf... The single "White Rabbit" went into series. Finally, a brand new idea began to become the company's decision: the "White Rabbit" brand image should transition to "White Rabbit culture", and "White Rabbit" should be integrated into all aspects of children's lives, becoming their inseparable good friends, and creating "White Rabbit Children's Culture".
As China's "resumption of customs" is imminent, enterprises are adopting group operations and integrating with international standards, which is a trend that no one can escape. The successful leap of "White Rabbit" undoubtedly provides the most practical first step for state-owned enterprises to realize changes in business strategies and "seize" the international market. Today, when the Shanghai Xiechang Sewing Machine Factory spent US$200,000 on an expensive "trademark lawsuit" to get a "butterfly" trademark back from Indonesia, Guanshengyuan can be thankful for their trademark layout. Most of them All were completed before 1992, when trademark competition was not yet intense. All this undoubtedly enabled this company to spend the minimum price when laying the foundation for the future "White Rabbit Empire".
The image of the cute white rabbit has aroused the "coveting" of many internationally renowned companies today. The world's largest food industry group, the American Kraft Foods Company from the homeland of "Mickey Mouse", has Xiang Guanshengyuan proposed to buy China's "White Rabbit" trademark. But today's owner of the "White Rabbit" already knows that this cute rabbit represents an "empire". The corporate brand and its cultural added value are a large amount of property that the company has not deposited in the bank but has huge interest. It is the passport for products to flow unimpeded in the market. In the final analysis, it will be the passport and new productivity for Chinese enterprises to enter the 21st century. Even if the other party offers a high price of 100 million US dollars, Guanshengyuan will not let this "white rabbit" born in China run away.
Director He of Hubei Jiaxin Trademark Office 13476003328 Free trademark inquiry QQ1049660522
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