Mengniu Milk Latest Event: Mengniu Violation
The famous "Double Star Case" in the dairy industry was once famous. Yili officially launched the "QQ Star Nutritional Juice Yogurt Drink" in 2012. With its unique Disney image packaging and product taste, it became the new favorite of consumers, especially children, and quickly achieved good results in the market. The sudden emergence of new markets has also become the target of many peers. In 2015, Mengniu quietly launched a "Future Star Nutritional Juice Yogurt Drink", but it caused huge controversy. On April 26, 2017, Mengniu officially issued an official statement to the public, admitting that its Mengniu Future Star products were "confused with Yili's products" on the decoration of the unique packaging.
Mengniu violates non-compete ban on future star clone Yili
According to consumer reports, similar "cloned products" have appeared on the shelves of Yili QQ Star. The newly launched Mengniu Future Star not only has a highly similar name to Yili QQ Star, but also uses the 3D three-dimensional packaging of cartoon images of the same specification, and even the two flavors of banana and strawberry are "zero difference" from Yili QQ Star. Later investigations revealed that Yili QQ Star and Mengniu Future Star were mistaken for the same product many times during the purchase process. Such obvious unfair competition behavior also attracted the attention of Yili, and it officially filed an intellectual property lawsuit with the court.
According to reports, in March 2016, Mengniu was sued by Yili for Future Star products, demanding to stop infringement and compensate 3 million yuan. In this regard, Mengniu rebutted in court on the grounds that the decoration of the products of the two parties was not similar, would not cause confusion and did not encroach on the subjective malice of Yili's goodwill, and asked the court to reject all the plaintiffs' claims. On March 22, the People's Court of Haidian District, Beijing heard the case publicly.
In December 2016, the Haidian Court held after trial that Mengniu Future Star Nutritional Juice Yogurt Beverage overlapped with Yili QQ Star Nutritional Juice Yogurt Beverage in terms of product category, client base, profit model, market segmentation, etc., and there was a direct competitive relationship. Moreover, according to the Anti-Unfair Competition Law, Mengniu launched congeneric products later than Yili Company, and the products involved were well-known and the packaging and decoration were significantly unique. In addition, Mengniu Company and Yili Company have long-standing fierce competition relationship, Mengniu Company cannot be ignorant of the packaging and decoration of the products involved in Yili Company, and make a judgment accordingly.
Then Mengniu was unwilling to lose the case, and then appealed. In February this year, the Beijing Intellectual Property Court issued a 2nd-round Moderation judgment on the case, upholding the original judgment made by the Haidian District People's Court, that is, ordering Mengniu Company to stop using the unfair competition of the product packaging and decoration involved, publish a statement, eliminate the impact, and compensate Yili Company for economic losses of 2 million yuan and reasonable expenses of 150,000 yuan. At the same time, it ordered a Beijing Trading Co., Ltd. to stop selling the infringing products involved.
On April 26, after a lapse of two months, Mengniu finally officially issued a statement to stop the infringement. However, according to the statement, Mengniu mentioned upgrading the original packaging, but did not give a clear explanation for the similar names, flavors, cartoon images and other elements. According to internal understanding, the court verdict on the infringement case found that "Mengniu deliberately used similar names, packaging and decoration on the packaging of the products involved, thereby misleading consumers and constituting unfair competition." Therefore, it can be indirectly judged that even if the problem is admitted verbally, the hidden infringement may continue in the future.
Product packaging causes disputes
It is understood that in 2011, Yili Company commissioned Guo'an DDB (Beijing) Advertising Media Co., Ltd. to design the outer packaging of the "QQ Star" product, and finally completed the relevant 3D three-dimensional packaging and decoration design with the cartoon image of Winnie the Pooh as the children's sour milk creative. In January 2012, Yili Company launched the "QQ Star" product, whose single product packaging is in the shape of a 3D cartoon Winnie the Pooh image beverage bottle. Since then, Yili Company has been using the above product packaging and decoration.
In April 2015, Mengniu launched the "Future Star" product, and the packaging of its individual products is also in the shape of a drink bottle with a 3D cartoon image of Winnie the Pooh.
In October 2015, Yili Company sent a lawyer's letter to Mengniu Company, informing Mengniu Company's "Future Star" that its product packaging was the same or similar to the product packaging decoration and product name of "QQ Star", which constituted unfair competition, and required Mengniu Company to respect Yili's prior rights and stop using bottles, bottle stickers and outer packaging similar to "QQ Star" products and other unfair competition behaviors in the production, sales and promotion.
Mengniu's reply stated that in order to enhance consumer recognition, it has highlighted the "Future Star" trademark in the center of the front of the product packaging, which enhances consumer recognition of "Future Star" products and effectively avoids the possibility of confusion; at the same time, the outer packaging of "Future Star" products does not have the behavior of color matching imitating "QQ Star"; in addition, the bottle shape of "Future Star" products has been patented for design, and the assertion that the outer packaging of the product falls within the scope of patent protection of Yili's "QQ Star" product bottle shape design is debatable.
Yili sued Mengniu and Future Star's distributor, Chengjiahe Company, in the Haidian District People's Court of Beijing, based on claims that Mengniu's "Future Star" used similar product packaging, decoration and product names to its "QQ Star", which constituted unfair competition.
The first instance was sentenced to pay more than 2 million yuan
According to reports, Yili Company sued that "QQ Star Nutritional Juice Yogurt Drink" was a drink designed for children that it launched and sold in 2012, including banana and strawberry flavors. The product's packaging and decoration design is unique, and it is a 3D three-dimensional packaging pioneered in China based on Disney cartoon images. Since its launch in 2012, the product has won several awards. After advertising and promotion, it has gained a high reputation and a high market share. It is a well-known product that is widely known to the relevant public. Mengniu listed a product called "Future Star Nutritional Juice Yogurt Drink" in April 2015. The product also includes two flavors, banana and strawberry. The packaging and decoration are modeled on cartoon images, and they are also 3D three-dimensional shapes, and the characteristics of cartoon images are similar. As congeneric products, the products of Yili Company and Mengniu Company are placed side by side on the shelves, causing confusion and misunderstanding among consumers. Yili Company believes that the packaging and decoration of the accused infringing products are the same or similar to the packaging and decoration of Yili Company's products in terms of composition elements, design style, etc., and the product names are also similar. Taking the general attention of the relevant public as the standard, it is easy to cause confusion and misunderstanding of the source of the product. Mengniu's behavior constituted unfair competition, and requested the court to order Mengniu to stop selling the product, issue a statement to eliminate the impact, and compensate 2 million yuan for economic losses and 1 million yuan for reasonable expenses. Yili Company also sued a supermarket in Haidian District to stop selling Mengniu's products involved in the case.
Mengniu Company argued that: Yili Company's products do not have popularity and uniqueness, and do not constitute the unique packaging and decoration of well-known commodities; the packaging and decoration of the two parties do not constitute similarity; there is no possibility of confusion between the products of the two parties; Mengniu Company's trademark itself is highly well-known, and there is no subjective malice to encroach on the goodwill of Yili Company; Mengniu Company has its own intellectual property rights, including its own bottle body and design. The product name of Yili Company is a general name, which is not well-known and cannot be unique to Yili Company. Request the court to dismiss all the plaintiffs' claims.
The defendant, a supermarket in Haidian District, argued that it was unable to judge whether the products of two internationally renowned dairy groups constituted intellectual property infringement, and that it had a legitimate source for purchasing through Mengniu Dairy Station. Request the court to dismiss Yili's lawsuit against it.
After the trial, the court held that: Yili Company and Mengniu Company are both engaged in the operation of milk products and are leading enterprises in the dairy industry in our country. Yili Company "QQ Star" and Mengniu Company "Future Star" are two independent milk brands specially developed for children under their respective subsidiaries, and compete fiercely in this field. The two sides overlap in product categories, client base, profit model, market segmentation, etc., and have a direct competitive relationship.
The court held that Mengniu Company launched congeneric products later than Yili Company, and Yili Company's products involved in the case were well-known and the packaging and decoration were significantly unique. Mengniu Company and Yili Company had a long-standing fierce competition relationship, and Mengniu Company could not have been ignorant of the packaging and decoration of Yili Company's products involved in the case. Finally, the court found that Mengniu Company constituted unfair competition and should immediately stop using the products involved in the case. A supermarket in Haidian District should immediately stop selling the infringing products involved in the case. At the same time, Mengniu Company should eliminate the impact and compensate Yili Company for economic losses and reasonable expenses totaling 2.15 million yuan.
Appeal dismissed, judgment upheld
Mengniu Company refused to accept the first-instance judgment and appealed, asking the court to revoke the original judgment and send it back for retrial to reject Yili Company's claim.
After trial, the Beijing Intellectual Property Court held that the civil rights and interests of packaging and decoration of well-known commodities should belong to the subject whose relevant commodities have gained relevant popularity, that is, the operator of the commodity. If the operator of a well-known commodity entrusts others to produce the well-known commodity, the specific producer of the commodity is not necessarily the operator of the commodity, and the operator of the commodity should still be judged according to which subject controls its production, sales, publicity and other links. Therefore, the owner of the rights and interests in packaging and decoration of "QQ Star" products should be Yili Company.
At the same time, the packaging and decoration of "QQ Star" single-bottle products have gained a high reputation after long-term and large-scale publicity and use. Its unique packaging and decoration have made the relevant public recognize that it has a corresponding relationship with Yili's "QQ Star" products, which has played a role in identifying the source of the product and constitutes the unique packaging and decoration of well-known commodities; the packaging and decoration of "QQ Star" single-group products have also gained a certain reputation after long-term and large-scale publicity and use. Its unique 4-group, front-facing, single-product cartoon character image expressions have different packaging and decoration. On the basis of the high popularity of single-bottle products, it also forms a corresponding relationship with Yili's "QQ Star" products, which plays a role in identifying the source of the product and constitutes the unique packaging and decoration of well-known commodities.
Mengniu's "Future Star" product uses a design similar to Yili's "QQ Star" product on a single bottle, although there are also minor differences such as "QQ" and "Future" text differences, different cartoon characters, and different specific locations of some text or fruit patterns. However, regardless of whether the scope of the relevant public is limited to the adolescent consumers that the product is mainly aimed at or the consumer groups including adolescent consumers and adult consumers, the single bottle product packaging and decoration of "Future Star" products are enough to confuse the relevant public. Although Mengniu's "Future Star" trademark has a certain reputation, its popularity is much lower than that of the "Mengniu" logo, and because it uses a similar font and location to Yili's "QQ Star" product packaging, it also takes into account the area size of the logo, the color relationship with its background, etc. to reflect its prominent use, and that Mengniu did not use the relevant products in full accordance with the font and artistic design in its "Future Star" trademark at the time of the incident. Overall, the Beijing Intellectual Property Court made the above 2nd-round Moderation Judgment.
Mengniu quietly issued a statement: acknowledging the existence of infringement of Yili
It is understood that on April 26, 2017, the well-known domestic dairy company Inner Mongolia Mengniu Dairy (14.76, -0.30, -1.99%) (group) joint stock company (hereinafter referred to as Mengniu) officially issued an official statement, responding to the infringement of Yili's well-known product "QQ Star Nutritional Juice Yogurt Drink", admitting that its Mengniu Future Star products are "confused with Yili's products" in the decoration of the unique packaging.
Mengniu Milk Latest Event 2017: Admitting the existence of infringement of Yili
It is understood that although Mengniu officially admitted the infringement, the statement said that "in order to significantly distinguish between the two and eliminate the impact, Mengniu has used upgraded new packaging and no longer uses the original packaging." It seems that it is still impossible to escape the suspicion of taking the priority lightly.
In fact, similar cases of plagiarism are not uncommon in various industries in China. For example, in the home furnishing field, I have heard domestic designers proudly say, "We have made changes and upgrades to the original design, so it is not plagiarism but innovation." I wonder if such innovation will give China's future business progress a fair enough development environment. In fact, although plagiarism can gain certain benefits in the short term, in the long run, it limits the creativity of enterprises and brings very bad effects to the public. In the end, it is the enterprise itself that is hurt. After all, losing integrity and trust is the greatest sorrow.
As a famous enterprise, brand perception is extremely important. For packaging design, large enterprises with strength and financial resources should avoid the "free ride" behavior and design original packaging with corporate characteristics.
Data show that as China's dairy industry duo, Mengniu and Yili were once neck and neck, but in just four years, Mengniu has been overtaken by Yili. Not long ago, Mengniu also issued a 2016 profit warning that the company would experience its first loss in eight years.
