The eight-year-old dispute over “red can herbal tea” between herbal tea brands Wanglaoji and Jiaduobao has finally come to a conclusion. How did this industry war, which attracted enough attention, end?
Photo by Fu Haowan, China Business Network
The "war" between the giants has finally come to an end
On the evening of August 16, Jiaduobao released "Jiaduobao" on its official website Bao’s Announcement on the Retrial Judgment of the Advertising Slogan Dispute Case “The Nation’s Leading Red Can Herbal Tea Changed its Name to Jiaduobao”.
The announcement stated that the Supreme Court’s civil judgment determined that objectively, Jiaduobao’s use of advertising slogans such as “The original red can of Wanglaoji has been renamed Jiaduobao herbal tea” does not have a misleading effect and does not constitute a False propaganda.
On the same day, Guangzhou Baiyunshan Pharmaceutical Group Co., Ltd. (Wanglaoji is its controlling subsidiary, hereinafter referred to as "Baiyunshan") issued an announcement disclosing the verdicts of multiple cases involving the herbal tea brands Wonglaoji and Jiaduobao. .
The announcement stated that the Civil Judgment of the Supreme Court showed that the court ordered Wuhan Jiaduobao to compensate Guangzhou Pharmaceutical Group and Wanglaoji Health*** for a total of 1 million yuan, and required Wuhan Jiaduobao to immediately stop publishing in the "Xiaoxiang Morning News" Post an advertisement containing "7 cans of Jiaduobao for every 10 cans of herbal tea sold in China", stop using and destroy product packaging printed with the advertisement "Jiaduobao, the country's leading red canned herbal tea"; reject the case of Guangzhou Pharmaceutical Group ( The controlling shareholder of Baiyunshan is Guangzhou Pharmaceutical Group Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Guangzhou Pharmaceutical Group"), Wanglaoji Health and other litigation claims. This judgment is final.
Specifically:
According to the "Civil Judgment" of the Supreme Court, the verdict of Case No. 1 is as follows:
1. The Hunan Provincial Higher People's Court (2016 ) Xiangminzhong Civil Judgment No. 94;
2. Revoke the Changzhong Minwuchuzi Civil Judgment No. 00308 (2013) of the Intermediate People’s Court of Changsha City, Hunan Province;
3. Wuhan Jiaduobao Beverage Co., Ltd. will immediately stop publishing advertisements containing the slogan "For every 10 cans of herbal tea sold in China, 7 cans of Jiaduobao" in the "Xiaoxiang Morning News" and immediately stop using and destroying the slogan " The product packaging with the advertising slogan "Jiaduobao", the leading red canned herbal tea in the country;
4. Hunan Fengcai Haorunjia Trading Co., Ltd. will immediately stop selling the products printed on the packaging as of the effective date of this judgment. Jiaduobao herbal tea with the slogan "Jiaduobao, the leading red canned herbal tea in the country - Jiaduobao";
5. Wuhan Jiaduobao Beverage Co., Ltd. shall compensate Guangzhou within ten days from the date of this judgment taking effect. The economic losses and reasonable expenses of Pharmaceutical Group Co., Ltd. and Guangzhou Wanglaoji Health Industry Co., Ltd. totaled RMB 1 million;
6. Reject the claims of Guangzhou Pharmaceutical Group Co., Ltd. and Guangzhou Wanglaoji Health Industry Co., Ltd. Other claims.
If Wuhan Jiaduobao Beverage Co., Ltd. fails to perform its monetary payment obligations within the specified period in accordance with this judgment, it shall comply with Article 253 of the Civil Procedure Law of the People's Republic of China. It stipulates that the interest on the debt during the period of delayed performance shall be doubled. The case acceptance fee for the first and second instance of this case totaled 165,200 yuan, of which 99,120 yuan was borne by Wuhan Jiaduobao Beverage Co., Ltd., and 66,080 yuan was jointly borne by Guangzhou Pharmaceutical Group Co., Ltd. and Guangzhou Wanglaoji Health Industry Co., Ltd. This judgment is final.
According to the announcement, regarding Case No. 2, the retrial applicant Guangdong Jiaduobao was dissatisfied with the civil judgment of the Guangdong Provincial Higher People’s Court due to a false publicity dispute with the respondent Guangzhou Pharmaceutical Group and the first-instance defendant Peng Bijuan. The Supreme Court applied for retrial.
According to the "Civil Judgment" of the Supreme Court, the judgment results of Case No. 2 are as follows:
1. The Guangdong Provincial Higher People's Court (2014) Guangdong High Court Civil Judgment No. 3 Zhongzi No. 482 is revoked ;
2. Revoke the civil judgment (2012) Suizhongfa Zhiminchuzi No. 263 of the Guangzhou Intermediate People’s Court of Guangdong Province;
3. Reject the lawsuit of Guangzhou Pharmaceutical Group Co., Ltd. Litigation claim.
The first and second instance case acceptance fees totaled 174,210 yuan and were borne by Guangzhou Pharmaceutical Group Co., Ltd. This judgment is final.
According to the announcement, regarding Case No. 3, the retrial of the false publicity dispute between the applicant Jiaduobao China and the respondent Wanglaoji Health Company, the applicant refused to accept the civil judgment of the Chongqing Higher People’s Court and applied to the Supreme Court for retrial .
According to the "Civil Judgment" of the Supreme Court, the judgment results of Case No. 3 are as follows:
1. The Chongqing Higher People's Court (2014) Yugao Faminzhongzi No. 00318 Civil Judgment is revoked;
2. Revoke the Civil Judgment No. 00345 of Chongqing Fifth Intermediate People’s Court (2013) Yuwu Zhongfa Minchuzi No. 00345;
3. Reject Guangzhou Wanglaoji Great Health Industry Co., Ltd. litigation claims.
The first and second instance case acceptance fees totaled 93,600 yuan, which was borne by Guangzhou Wanglaoji Health Industry Co., Ltd. This judgment is final.
Eight years of love and hate
Eight years ago, in the dispute surrounding the Wong Lo Kat trademark, Wong Lao Kat was flooded with subpoenas, bringing Jiaduobao to court again and again. Since then, , between Jiaduobao and Wanglaoji, rounds of confrontations began in the court.
According to the announcement issued by Baiyunshan, in 2013, GPHL and Wanglaoji Health Company took Wuhan Jiaduobao, Hunan Fengcai Haorunjia Trading Co., Ltd. and Xiaoxiang Morning News to court. .
The reason is that Wuhan Jiaduobao, Fengcai Company, and Xiaoxiang Morning News used "the country's leading red can herbal tea has been renamed Jiaduobao" or other "renamed" slogans in their advertising or product packaging. The behavior seriously damaged the trademark and goodwill of the plaintiff Wanglaoji and constituted unfair competition; the defendants Wuhan Jiaduobao, Fengcai Company, and Xiaoxiang Morning News used in their advertising or product packaging the words "Red canned herbal tea, which is the leading sales volume in the country - Jiaduobao" "Jiaduobao", "For every 10 cans of herbal tea sold in China, 7 cans of Jiaduobao are afraid of getting angry, more people drink Jiaduobao, the formula is authentic, of course more people drink it" or "Jiaduobao herbal tea is approved as a national non-material The slogan "Cultural Heritage Masterpiece" is inconsistent with the objective facts and violates the prohibitive laws and regulations of the country. It is also false propaganda and directly derogates and damages the plaintiff's trademark and goodwill, constituting unfair competition.
In September 2015, Baiyunshan released the judgment of the Changsha Intermediate People’s Court in an announcement. The Changsha Intermediate Court required Wuhan Jiaduobao and related parties to stop publishing relevant content and stop selling products with In addition to Jiaduobao products with relevant advertising slogans, it is required to compensate Guangzhou Pharmaceutical Group and Wanglaoji Health Company for economic losses totaling RMB 9.023 million.
In addition to this case, GPHL also filed related lawsuits against Jiaduobao in Guangdong Province and Chongqing City. The courts in the above two places respectively ruled that Guangdong Jiaduobao should compensate GPHL 1081.32 10,000 yuan, Jiaduobao China compensated Wanglaoji Healthy 400,000 yuan.
From this calculation, in the three cases, the amount of compensation Jiaduobao had to bear reached 20.24 million yuan. After that, Jiaduobao filed separate appeals, but the original verdict was upheld in the second instance. Jiaduobao was still dissatisfied with the verdict and filed a retrial with the Supreme People's Court.
Who wins in the final outcome
In fact, in recent years, while the disputes between Wanglaoji and Jiaduobao continue, the growth rate of my country's herbal tea market has gradually slowed down.
Data released by the Qianzhan Industry Research Institute shows that from 2011 to 2015, the market size of my country's herbal tea industry continued to maintain a double-digit expansion rate, with an average annual compound growth rate of 12.34%; and in 2016 After the year, the market size growth rate dropped to single digits.
Data show that the market size of the herbal tea industry in 2017 was approximately 57.8 billion yuan, with Wanglaoji and Jiaduobao accounting for the majority.
In this Supreme Court ruling, the amount of compensation that Jiaduobao had to bear was reduced from more than 9 million yuan to 1 million yuan. In the other two cases of false publicity disputes, the original judgments against Jiaduobao with cumulative compensation of 11.21 million yuan were also revoked during the retrial process of the Supreme Court. Judging from the results, Jiaduobao has made a turn for the better in all three lawsuits.
In fact, this kind of fight is not good for both parties.