Golden Combination: Chow Tai Fook and Disney

"You can't stay in your corner of the Forest waiting for others to come to you. You have to go to them sometimes," said Winnie the Pooh.

Winnie the Pooh: "All this gold makes me crave for ... honey."
Exhibition at Yitian Holiday Plaza,
Windows of the World, Shenzhen
Photo Danny Friedmann

Now Winnie is talking the talk and walking the walk, since Disney joined forces with Hong Kong jewelry chain store Chow Tai Fook Jewellery Group Ltd., that just was listed to the Hang Seng Stock Exchange (and as of today is part of the Hong Kong Global Composite Index and Hong Kong Composite Index, see here). 

Chow Tai Fook raised 2 billion U.S. dollars in its Initial Public Offering to get enough funds to realise its plan to expand its points of sale in China, Hong Kong and Macau to 2,000 stores by 2016. Now, Chow Tai Fook has around 1,500 stores, mostly in China. In Macau it has about 80 stores. Chow Tai Fook also has stores in Taiwan, Singapore and Malaysia. 

Chow Tai Fook was awarded Disney's product licence, see here, to take advantage from the recognition of Disney's  iconic bear (which, according to girls and even grown up women has a high "cuteness" factor) and combine it with the jewelry retail expertise of Chow Tai Fook in China, Hong Kong and Macau.

Do you consider to engage in co-branding and you want to know more information about the legal implications, contact ipdragon at gmail.

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Undecent Miffy Bunnies Spotted In Macau

Warning: This article contains material which may offend and may not be distributed, circulated, sold, hired, given, lent, shown, played or projected to a person under the age of 18 years.

Let me first refresh your memory about IP relevant rabbits and then tell you about my encounter with the undecent two Miffy bunnies in Macau.

Miffy is the English name of the Nijntje (konijntje = little rabit) cartoon figure, created by Dick Bruna. Kathy (in many articles this name is written with a C) looks very similar to Miffy and is a cartoon by Sanrio, the same company that created HelloKitty. To distinguish the two alleged "cute" rodents. Miffy nose is an X, and Kathy's nose is a O.

Rabbits are known for their talent to reproduce, but Mercis, the company representing Miffy's creator, Dick Bruna, held that there can be only one: Miffy, based on Miffy's Dutch copyright and Benelux trademark.
November 2, 2010, the judge responsible for interim relief (voorzieningenrechter) Amsterdam Regional Court (Rechtbank Amsterdam) agreed with Mercis that Sanrio infringes both Mr Bruna's copyright and trademark for Miffy. Read the judgment here. Sanrio decided to appeal the decision.

Then March 11, 2011 Japan was struck by natural disasters. This seems to have relativised both parties, because in the beginning of 2011 they settled the matter out of court and decided to donate 17,5 million yen (155,000 euro) to the victims of the natural disasters. And Sanrio will exit Kathy, read Catherine Lee's article for IP Kat about it here.

Read more here.

Japanarchist and Givemeabreakman with Tomoko give an overview of the Miffy versus Kathy, rabbit fight and reconciliation.

In a shop at the Calçada da Barra, a sinister street in Macau, the Dutch Miffy is depicted on each plastic bags. Now the bag does not show whether or not the maker of bags has a license to use the copyrighted Miffy. In Macau's Online Trademark Registration Search System I could not found Miffy as a Macanese trademark. My impression was that this is a school example of passing-off, although it is called judicial action for unfair competition (articles 156-173 Commercial Code of Macau).

The Calçada da Barra might as well be named Sodom and Gomorrah for its aberrant disrespect of IP.

Each sold product, unrelated to Miffy, was put in a Miffy bag

In bright daylight I was exposed to the plastic bag. 

Two Miffy bunnies are depicted here tastelessly topless.
Mr Bruna could invoke its moral rights based on his copyright.
Another option might be trademark tarnishment,
if Miffy is a well known mark in Macau and if trademark dilution is possible under Macanese law.

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On Counterfeit liquor and wine

People's Republic of China

During the massive IP enforcement campaign “Bright Sword” police cracked down in Beijing, Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Guizhou in 40 cases involving the production and selling of fake alcohol. China Daily wrote: “March 23 to 25, police raided 272 production and sales outlets nationwide and found more than 300 devices used for counterfeiting as well as over 13.5 million pieces of forged packaging materials, such as bottle caps, labels and boxes of well-known brands. Meanwhile, more than 30 tons of bulk wines and 13.5 million fake bottles, caps and labels worth up to 2 billion yuan (US$ 306 million) were also seized by police.” Read here.

Hong Kong
Special Administrative
Region

It is estimated that five percent of all wines in China are counterfeit. Is Chateau Le Tromperie on sale, instead of the label that is on the bottle? According to an article by Alexandra Lages for the Macau Daily Times: “Hong Kong’s expert Simon Tam recently alerted that the HKSAR newly-gained reputation as the wine-trading hub must be protected against fakes in the market. Tam said that the problem is not serious yet, but urged authorities to act fast.”

Macau
Special Administrative
Region

In China, Hong Kong and Macau wine drinking has only recently become en vogue. Thus not everybody has the knowledge yet of what taste a certain wine should have. If it smells like paint remover it is clear, but the difference between a bulk wine and some special wine can be more subtle. And it is well known that it is near impossible to find out before buying some vintage wine whether the bottle is real but its content might be not. There is a luctrative trade in real bottles. As Peter Shadbolt points out Chateau Lafite bottles can fetch 1,500 US dollar on the black market in China. He quotes Fongyee Walker, a Beijing-based wine consultant with Dragon Phoenix Fine Wines. Ms Walker makes it clear that gifting is bad for a brand. Because if someone receives a counterfeit wine as a gift and recognises it as a counterfeit, chances are that he or she in turn will give it to someone as a gift, etc. See here.

(Chateau La Tromperie= Castle The Deception)

Read Ms Lages article here.

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8th Annual IEEM IP Seminar in Macau

Professor Anselm Kamperman Sanders of the Maastricht University, the Netherlands, informed me about The International Intellectual Property Law and Pharmaceuticals conference organised by Dr. Christopher Heath, Member of the Boards of Appeal at the European Patent Office (EPO) and himself. It will be the 8th Annual IP Seminar to be organised at the Instituto de Estudos Europeus de Macau (IEEM) from June 25 through 26 2007.

The agenda of the full programme is:
4th IEEM IP Law School June, 18-22 2007;
8th IEEM IP Seminar June, 25-26, 2007;
4th IEEM IP Master classes June, 27-29, 2007.

About this programme:

"Classes are offered in an intensive Socratic format in the course of one week by experts in the field Dr. Christopher Heath, of the Boards of Appeal of the European Patent Office, Prof. Anselm Kamperman Sanders, of Maastricht University, and local guest speakers who offer a Chinese perspective on Intellectual Property Law.

"This challenging programme also expects students to jointly prepare and argue several moot cases in a friendly, yet competitive atmosphere, providing a unique insight in the way in which participants from various jurisdictions approach international and domestic legal problems.
The IP Law School offers an excellent opportunity to prepare or refresh one’s knowledge before the 8th Annual IP Seminar and the subsequent IP Master Classes.

"IP Master Classes offer the opportunity to learn from an expert in a particular sub-discipline of Intellectual Property Law. Whereas the IP Master Classes follow the same Socratic format of the IP Law School, including the opportunity to argue mock trials, they are much more topical and are taught jointly by the regular IP Law School team and other expert speakers from the IP Seminar. This means that IP Master Classes form a seamless companion programme to the annual Intellectual Property Seminar."

See more here.

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