Douban sues Weibo for plagiarizing multiple Douban group names

Douban sues Weibo for plagiarizing multiple Douban group names. In Douban’s view, Sina Weibo is a peer of Douban Competitors, and "Chaohua Community" and "Douban Group" are competing products. Douban sues Weibo for plagiarizing multiple Douban group names. Douban sued Weibo for plagiarizing the names of multiple Douban groups 1

On the 30th, Douban sued Weibo on the grounds of "unfair competition", claiming that Weibo had plagiarized the names of multiple Douban groups without authorization. Weibo is required to immediately stop the infringement, publicly apologize, and compensate Douban RMB 1 yuan.

On March 29, Weibo@Chaohua Community posted a blog post titled "Chaohua Rising Star Project" to recruit Chaohua administrators. The multiple topics used in the pictures accompanying the blog post coincided with previous Douban group names, such as: Weird Issues Research Center, Sunset Lovers, Quarrels Didn't Work Well, The Most Hypocritical Group in History, etc. At the same time, people with experience in Douban group management were recruited to the Weibo platform to establish a "super chat community".

Douban believes that Weibo, as a competitor of Douban in the same industry, uses multiple Douban group names without authorization and recruits people with Douban group management experience to Weibo. The gambling platform established a "super chat community" similar in nature to the "Douban Group". This behavior disrupted the order of market competition and violated Douban's legitimate rights and interests. Therefore, it made four demands on Douban:

1. Immediately Stop infringement activities, including but not limited to deleting infringing links and stopping recruitment for the "Super Talk Rising Star Project". 2. Make a public apology. 3. Compensate the plaintiff with RMB 1 yuan. 4. The defendant shall bear all the litigation costs of this case.

As of press time, Weibo has not yet responded. Douban sues Weibo: Plagiarizing multiple Douban group names 2

On the evening of March 30, Douban announced on Weibo that it would sue Sina Weibo to the Beijing Chaoyang District Court on the grounds of unfair competition, demanding that Sina Weibo Bo immediately stopped recruiting for the "Super Talk Rising Star Project" and demanded compensation of 1 yuan.

As of the time of publication by the Nandu reporter, Sina Weibo had not responded to this issue.

It is reported that Beijing Douban Technology Co., Ltd. is the operating company of Douban.com, and Beijing Weimeng Chuangke Network Technology Co., Ltd. is the operating company of Sina Weibo.

Douban said that "Douban Group" is one of Douban's core products. This is a product function created for Internet users to discuss topics with people with similar interests. .

According to the complaint, Douban discovered that Sina Weibo released the "Super Talk Rising Star Project" to recruit managers, used multiple "Douban Group" group names in the promotion page, and recruited people with Douban group management experience Renzhi Weibo establishes a "super chat community".

From Douban’s perspective, Sina Weibo is Douban’s competitor in the same industry, and “Chaohua Community” and “Douban Group” are competing products. Sina Weibo's move is to plagiarize the idea of ??the "Douban Group" group name and make use of the content and experience of Douban users for many years. It goes against business ethics and undermines the community atmosphere of the Internet.

Not only that, Douban mentioned that Sina Weibo allowed its Weibo users to "transport" Douban content data in large quantities for a long time. The behavior of Weibo users infringed on Douban's content and data rights, and also infringed on Douban users. and the copyrights of related rights holders. Douban stated that it had sent an official letter to Sina Weibo regarding Weibo users' behavior of "removing" content, but Sina Weibo has not yet dealt with it.

In addition, Douban also claimed that some Weibo users used the trademarks "Douban", "Douban" and "Douban Group" without authorization, infringing Douban's trademark rights. Douban believes that Sina Weibo, as a network service platform, still did not take measures such as deletion after receiving the notice, which increased Douban's losses.

According to the Anti-Unfair Competition Law, Trademark Law, Civil Code and other relevant provisions, Douban believes that the above-mentioned actions of Sina Weibo infringe on Douban’s trademark rights and seriously violate the principle of good faith and recognized business ethics. Morality constitutes unfair competition.

Therefore, Douban requested the court to order Sina Weibo to immediately stop infringement activities, including but not limited to deleting infringing links, stopping the recruitment of the "Super Talk Rising Star Project"; publicly apologize; and compensate RMB 1 Yuan.

According to Nandu reporters, @超话community posted on Weibo on March 29 that it would launch the "Chaohua Rising Star Project" from now until April 30.

The application conditions for the "Super Talk Rising Star Project" include having administrator experience in any community, managing more than 500 community members, and being over 18 years old. The plan will also provide official support such as host incentive plan, fast certification channel, hot search, banner, information flow and other resources.

In addition, the promotional materials for the "Super Talk Rising Star Project" appear with textual expressions such as "fooling with learning", "about going to work", "did your consumption downgrade today", "arguing and not performing well". According to Nandu reporters, this is the same name as a group with more active users on the Douban platform.

It is worth mentioning that at 21:00 on March 30, a reporter from Nandu tried to re-check the @Chaohua Community Weibo above, but it was no longer visible. Douban sues Weibo: Plagiarizing multiple Douban group names 3

On March 30, Douban’s official Weibo posted a civil lawsuit on Weibo, which stated that the plaintiff “Beijing Douban Technology Co., Ltd.” sued the defendant “ Beijing Weimeng Chuangke Network Technology Co., Ltd.” unfair competition.

Require the defendant "Weimeng Technology" (the parent company of Sina Weibo) to immediately stop infringement activities, including but not limited to deleting infringing links and stopping the recruitment of the "Super Talk Rising Star Project"; publicly apologize and compensate the plaintiff RMB 1 yuan and bear all the litigation costs of this case.

According to the pictures published by "Douban", the defendant in the lawsuit, the official Weibo account "Chaohua Community", posted "Chaohua Rising Star" on March 29 "Project", the topics involved in its activities copied the name of the Douban group exactly.

Judging from the picture, the "Super Talking Star Project" changed several Douban groups such as "Mutual Aid Alliance for Text Aphasic Persons" and "Pleasing Personality Treatment Center" into "Mutual Aid Alliance for Text Aphasic Persons" , "Pleasant Personality Treatment Center" and other super words on Weibo.

It is reported that the Douban team has undergone many rectifications since Operation Qinglang. On March 22, Douban officially issued the "Penalty Announcement on Further Strengthening the Special Action to Control Chaos in the "Rice Circle" (March 22, 2022)" and disbanded 15 problem groups, including: antique grocery stalls, Qingsanchuang Four hot-blooded groups, the database on the 18th floor, etc.

Previously, the Douban Ladai group and Emma Garden group, which were quite popular in the fan circle, were disbanded. Nowadays, only the Douban Goose Group is left among Douban's large-scale entertainment groups. In September 2021, the Douban Goose Group was suspended for two months for rectification.