Milk tea is now the "happy water" for many young people. Various Internet celebrity milk teas emerge in endlessly, with various brands. The most popular ones include Yidiandian, Xicha, Chayanyuese, Mixue Bingcheng, Lujiaoxiang, etc. The trademark dispute case we are going to talk about today is about an Internet celebrity milk tea - Yidian milk tea.
Recently, a milk tea shop called "Yidiandian Tiantian" has appeared on the market. Is this a sub-brand of "Yidiandian"?
DianDian VS DiDianDian sweet or not
DianDian milk tea, as an Internet celebrity milk tea, is deeply loved by milk tea lovers and has a high reputation so far. Has a large consumer base. Its operating company is Shenggen Catering Management (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. (Shenggen Company), which was established on August 25, 2011. The legal representative is Lou Shenhen. The company has opened a number of "Yidiandian" brand milk tea shops.
The names of "a little bit sweet or not" and "a little bit" are so similar, could they be "relatives"?
However, it is not. The operating company of "Yidiandian Sweet" is Guangzhou Future Catering Management Service Co., Ltd. (Future Company), which competes with "Yidiandian".
In 2017, Shenggen Company discovered that Future Company’s “A Little Bit Sweet” store signs, product packaging, decorations, etc. used logos similar to “Yidiandian”, so Shenggen Company used this to Future Company went to court, claiming that the company violated trademark rights and unfair competition.
Shenggen Company filed a lawsuit with the People's Court of Huangpu District, Guangzhou City. After a trial, the Huangpu District People's Court held that Future Company's behavior infringed upon Shenggen Company's registered trademark rights and constituted unfair competition, and sentenced Future Company to compensate RMB 480,000.
Future Company responded that its own company uses a blue label with a blue background, while the Shenggen Company’s trademark is green with a yellow background, and the word "diandian" is completely different, and the two are not identical. or approximately. Secondly, the accused infringing logo is only used on the cups of milk tea products on the official website of Future Company, and is not used as a signboard for milk tea shops. It does not appear in physical stores or any physical trademarks. It is considered that it is impossible to constitute trademark infringement.
Therefore, Future Company filed an appeal. Faced with Future Company's appeal, the Guangzhou Intellectual Property Court heard the case in accordance with the law and held that neither party had any objection to the facts found by the court of first instance, and the court confirmed it.
The Guangzhou Intellectual Property Court held that in this case, Future Company’s use of logos in its milk tea beverage stores such as shop signboards, product packaging, decoration, etc. infringed its exclusive rights to the registered trademark involved in the case. The first instance found that Future Company had infringed upon Shenggen Company’s registered trademark rights, which was legal and reasonable, and was confirmed.
As for the amount of compensation, the court of first instance determined that it was not inappropriate for Future Company to compensate Shenggen Company of 480,000 yuan (including economic losses and reasonable expenses) and upheld it.
According to the China Trademark Network, the trademark related to "Yidiandian" was first registered in 1995. So far, there have been 174 trademarks related to "Yidiandian" and "Yidiandian". Lou Shenzhen applied for 12 "1DianDian" trademarks, covering categories 16, 17, 18, 21, 25, 29, 30, 32, 35, and 43.
However, according to the query, there are still a large number of trademarks similar to "Yidiandian", such as "Yidiandian Sour Cow", "Yidiandian Oolong Tea", "Yidiandian Black Tea", "Yidiandian Green Tea", etc. wait. So when you queue for a long time and finally buy the 1-point milk tea you have been craving for, what you drink may be fake milk.
How should Internet celebrity restaurants “fight counterfeiting”
For Internet celebrity restaurants, they themselves are also subject to the supervision of market supervision departments. For general Internet celebrity restaurants, such as Lujiaoxiang, 1DianDian, Heytea, Master Bao, etc., the market regulatory agency can usually contact the trademark holder through the internal system and require the trademark holder to issue A complete set of materials about trademarks, and asking them to identify which stores are "authorized", so that they can easily identify the authenticity and the fake, and then impose penalties.
So-called “fake Internet celebrity stores” are generally considered to infringe on the trademark rights of trademark holders. Based on the application of the trademark owner, investigations and punishments can be carried out in accordance with regulations, and copycat stores can be punished in accordance with relevant intellectual property laws and regulations.