Jun 15, 2020 | The Lovely Peppa Pig Has Received Favorable Treatment in Trademark Protection in China

In recent years, due to the rapid development of international economic and cultural exchanges, the regionality of intellectual property rights has been unprecedentedly impacted, and the protection of intellectual property rights has become increasingly international. The protection of foreign-related intellectual property rights has in particular become the core issue of international trade with China.

Before 2015, when Peppa Pig entered the Chinese market, China already had some infringing trademark applications. And subsequently, when Peppa Pig has become more and more popular in the country and the problem has become more and more serious.

Bad faith application occurs when an applicant deliberately registers a trademark to ride on the goodwill and reputation associated with another owner’s trademark.

In the case of Peppa Pig, quite a number of individuals and companies in China have sought profits by registering trademarks that are very similar to the authentic Peppa Pig trademarks or by registering trademarks related to other characters in the Peppa Pig cartoons.

In early 2018, the two rights owners of Peppa Pig (i.e. Astley Baker Davies Limited and Entertainment One UK Limited) discovered that a Chinese company, namely “Jufan Co., Ltd” had been selling large quantity of toys with the image of their Peppa Pig family and used a photo of the Peppa Pig family on the Taobao platform. One of the manufacturers was “Jiale Toys Industrial Co., Ltd”.

Astley Baker Davies Limited and Entertainment One UK Limited filed a law suit against, inter alia, the two infringers and Zhejiang Taobao Network Co., Ltd. (hereinafter “Taobao”). Upon examination, the Hangzhou Internet Court found that Jiale was originally authorized to produce and sell toys featuring Peppa Pig image.

Having said that, the said authorization already expired by that time and had never been renewed. Therefore, any unauthorized use of the copyright matters would inevitably violate the authorization agreement. And that Jufan had failed to provide evidence to prove that its products have been authorized or obtained through legitimate channels.

Taobao, as a network service provider, has been found fulfilling its due diligence obligations and timely removed the disputed product information. Therefore, both Jiale and Jufan are found guilty for the infringement, while Taobao is excused from sharing the liability with them.

Thereafter, Jiale appealed to the Hangzhou Intermediate People’s Court, admitting that it involved a sales channel that violated the agreement and therefore arguing that it was a matter of breach of agreement, instead of an infringement.

However, Hangzhou Intermediate People’s Court considered that the relevant agreement had expressly stipulated that sales channels are restricted to Tianmao, Jingdong and Amazon.com, but Jiale had produced and sold the infringing goods outside the agreed sales channels. Hangzhou Intermediate People’s Court therefore reaffirmed the decision of the Hangzhou Internet Court.

In a latest decision of the Trademark Review and Adjudication Board (TRAB) on 29 July 2019 for invalidation of PRC trademark registration no.13685632 for trademark “ ”, it was held that the disputed mark had infringed the copyright being enjoyed by the petitioner Astley Baker Davies Limited and Entertainment One UK Limited, and declared that the disputed registration invalid.

It appears that, with the benefit of hindsight, the PRC courts and the TRAB have been adopting a favorable treatment towards the protection of IP rights of the Peppa Pig.