In April 2020, Yuan Longping Agricultural Hi-Tech Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Longping Hi-Tech) found that Agricultural Science and Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as the company), (Hangzhou) Culture Media Co., Ltd. and Huang Wei (the couple's online name "viya Viya") were suspected of infringing Yuan Longping's right to name and portrait, and issued a warning letter. Longping Hi-Tech sued the court because Mi Yuan Company did not stop using Yuan Longping's name and portrait in its official WeChat account and related articles on the website from beginning to end.
Newspapers. It was learned from Hunan High Court that not long ago, the Higher People's Court of Hunan Province concluded this intellectual property infringement dispute in the second instance: it sentenced Mi Yuan Company to immediately terminate the behavior of individuals using Yuan Longping's name and portrait for compensation, and paid Longping Hi-Tech 65,438+10,000 yuan in property losses.
Longping Hi-Tech is an agricultural science and technology listed enterprise, established in 1999, with a registered capital of131700 million RMB. Its business scope includes agricultural planting and sales, processing and sales of agricultural and sideline products, etc. It is well-known in agriculture, animal husbandry and animal husbandry.
In order to standardize the profitable application of academician Yuan Longping's name right and portrait right, Yuan Longping signed the Yuan Longping Brand Rights License Agreement with Longping Hi-Tech before his death, and the enterprise obtained the exclusive approval right to the profitable application of academician Yuan Longping's name right and portrait right in its production and business activities.
On April 20, 2020, Longping Hi-Tech discovered that Mi Yuan Company, (Hangzhou) Culture Media Co., Ltd., Huang Wei (the name of the lovers' network is "viya VIYA") and Taobao were suspected of infringing on Yuan Longping's right to name and portrait, so it applied to Changsha Notary Office for a fair investigation and evidence collection, and preserved the official account of Mi Yuan company WeChat, company website and Taobao shop.
On April 23, 2020, Longping Hi-Tech issued a "Warning Letter" to Mi Yuan Company, stipulating that Mi Yuan Company "immediately terminated its personal behavior of selling infringing products on the Internet and other markets through various channels, and deleted relevant web pages; Without reasonable and legal authorization, it is strictly forbidden to use Yuan Longping's name, portrait and trademark logo for commercial service promotion and planning, or to get in touch with Yuan Longping when promoting and planning related products. "
On the same day, Longping Hi-Tech also sent a warning letter to Qian Xun (Hangzhou) Culture Media Co., Ltd., and the products of Mi Yuan Agricultural Science and Technology Co., Ltd. were suspended during the live broadcast. Longping Hi-Tech sued the court because Mi Yuan Company did not stop using Yuan Longping's name and portrait in its official WeChat account and related articles on the website from beginning to end.
On April 26, the newspaper. Com on the official website of Mi Yuan Company. The company briefly stated: "'Mi Yuan' is a well-known brand under the group of Mi Yuan Agricultural Science and Technology Co., Ltd. and a well-known brand of sea rice terminal equipment."
The company intercepted a report of Jinan Daily on May 23rd, 20021in the "News Center" in official website. The report writes: There is an enterprise in Jinan, which participated in the new project of "Sea Rice" in Yuan Longping before, and will carry out the plan of "Reviving Yellow River Rice" in Pingyin, inheriting Yuan Lao's legacy that "rice should not only be full, but also eat well", so that more people can eat good rice-the name of this enterprise is "Mi Yuan", and Yuan Longping personally authorized it.
The report also interviewed Liu Rihui, the boss of Mi Yuan Agricultural Science and Technology Co., Ltd., and reported that "Mi Yuan" is the first well-known brand of sea rice terminal equipment and the main body of social marketing promotion basically expanded and established by the sea rice R&D center led by Yuan Longping. Yuan Longping authorized the word "Yuan" as the trademark name of. "With the active promotion of Mi Yuan, Yuan Longping met with Viya at Changsha National Hybrid Rice Research Center on June 5, 20 19+09, and authorized Viya as the special envoy for the marketing and promotion of' China Pioneer' sea rice. 10 June 16, 430,000 kilograms of' Mi Yuan' were sold out in Viya live room in one second. According to the Taobao live broadcast platform, it is an important measure with milestone effect for sea rice to enter the Taobao live broadcast room and revolutionize ecological agriculture with Internet technology. "
According to a ruling of the People's Court of Lixia District, Jinan City published by China Judgment Document Network, Mi Yuan Company filed a lawsuit with the court, demanding to confirm that its use of the related content and portrait of "Yuan Longping" did not infringe the exclusive right to use the trademark of "Yuan Longping".
Mi Yuan Company claims that Academician Yuan Longping, as the manager of Qingdao Yuance Group, an affiliated company of Mi Yuan Company, cooperated with the appellant to develop and establish "Mi Yuan" sea rice. The appellant's use of "Yuan Longping" characters and portraits in marketing and publicity planning is a narrative of objective facts and an application of personal behavior. At the same time, the appellant's application of "Yuan Longping" characters and portraits in marketing and publicity planning does not belong to trademark identification application. In the publicity planning and marketing pages of the people involved, the appellant official website and WeChat official accounts are marked with "Mi Yuan" or "Mi Yuan Famous Brand" in obvious parts. When selling Mi Yuan goods in the live broadcast room of Taobao anchor Viya, the appellee's trademark registration was highlighted in the signs and connections of related goods, and the related words of "Yuan Longping" only expounded objective facts and did not have the ability to identify the source of goods. The "Yuan Longping" and the portrait applied by the appellant are both the founder of * * *. Academician Yuan Longping introduced the famous brand "Mi Yuan" in detail, and expounded the rational use of related products and materials.
After verification by the Lixia District Court of Jinan City, it was determined that this case was a dispute case that did not damage the patent right. However, before Mi Yuan Company filed a case for investigation and trial, Longping Hi-Tech filed a lawsuit against Mi Yuan Company to stop using the name "Yuan Longping" and the portrait of Academician Yuan Longping. Changsha Intermediate People's Court filed a case for investigation and trial on July 30, 2020. The court held that the above two cases were non-infringement litigation and copyright infringement litigation caused by the same objective fact, and they were separate lawsuits. This case has not been digested and absorbed because the other defendant mentioned the infringement lawsuit, but in order to prevent the case with the same objective fact from being tried repeatedly by the court, it should be handled in accordance with the regulations. Finally, the case was handed over to the Intermediate People's Court of Changsha City, Hunan Province.
With regard to the case of Longping Hi-Tech v. Mi Yuan Company's infringement, Changsha Intermediate People's Court found through trial that Mi Yuan Company's use of Yuan Longping's name and portrait in its articles on WeChat WeChat official account and its website belongs to the description and publicity planning based on the form of associating Academician Yuan Longping's name and portrait with the company and its sea rice products, which are all profitable applications. This usage will confuse customers and make them think that Mi Yuan's products are strongly recommended or endorsed by Academician Yuan Longping.
In the cooperation agreement signed between Mi Yuan Company and Academician Yuan Longping in 20 18, Yuan Longping only gave comprehensive and specific guidance to Mi Yuan Company's scientific research work in rice flavor and food hygiene and safety industries. The commitment made in the cooperation agreement has nothing to do with the development, marketing and promotion of new sea rice products, nor does it involve Yuan Longping's commitment to approve Mi Yuan Company to use its name and portrait in its production and business activities, nor can Mi Yuan Company submit reasonable and direct evidence to prove that the sea rice products involved are from the objective facts of scientific research and development in Yuan Longping and R&D departments.
The court held that Academician Yuan Longping has made outstanding contributions to the food production safety of all mankind, and all kinds of social development actors should pay attention to his name and portrait, and apply it cautiously and standardly. In particular, when promoting and planning cooperation with Yuan Longping, industry actors should uphold the standards of seeking truth and being pragmatic, and should not fabricate and exaggerate the level of cooperation between the two sides, so as to deceive customers and seek benefits.
In this case, Mi Yuan Company profitably used Yuan Longping's name and portrait in articles related to the promotion of equipment in enterprises such as sea rice without consent and permission, but there was no evidence to prove that there was so much correlation between Yuan Longping's promotion products and the people involved in the promotion articles.
The court held that the personal behavior of Mi Yuan Company's profitable application harmed Longping Hi-Tech's exclusive application interests of Yuan Longping's name and portrait, violated the principle of good faith and recognized business ethics, easily caused confusion and misunderstanding among users, and increased the risk of mistaken purchase, which belonged to the infringement of institutional intellectual property rights in Article 2 and Article 6, paragraph 4, of the Unfair Competition Law. Therefore, it was decided that Mi Yuan Company immediately terminated the personal behavior of profitably applying Yuan Longping's name and portrait due to infringement of intellectual property rights, and paid Longping Hi-Tech a property loss of 6,543,800 yuan.
After the judgment of the first instance, the other party mentioned the prosecution at that time. In the second instance, the Higher People's Court of Hunan Province ruled that the appeal was dismissed and the procuratorate protested.