Viya live room sells "Yuan Mi" Hunan High Court map.
Yuan Mi, which once sold well in Viya’s live broadcast room, was personally authorized by Academician Yuan Longping? What does it have to do with Academician Yuan Longping? On April 26th, Hunan Higher People’s Court informed that Yuan Mi had infringed Yuan Longping’s right to name and portrait.
In April 2020, Yuan Longping Agricultural Hi-Tech Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Longping Hi-Tech) discovered that Yuanmi Agricultural Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Yuanmi Company), Qianxun (Hangzhou) Culture Media Co., Ltd. and Huang Wei (net name "viya VIYA") were suspected of infringing Yuan Longping’s right to name and portrait, and issued a warning letter. Since Yuanmi Company has never stopped using Yuan Longping’s name and portrait in its WeChat WeChat official account and related articles on its website, Longping Hi-Tech sued the court.
The Paper learned from Hunan High Court that recently, the Hunan Higher People’s Court concluded this unfair competition dispute case in the second instance: it ordered Yuanmi Company to immediately stop the unfair competition in commercial use of Yuan Longping’s name and portrait and compensate Longping Hi-Tech for economic losses of 100,000 yuan.
Yuan Longping’s name and portrait used by Yuanmi Company for publicity. Yuanmi Company official website Map
"Yuan Mi" sold rice with the name and portrait of "Yuan Longping" and was sued to the court.
Longping Hi-Tech is an agricultural science and technology listed company established in 1999, with a registered capital of 1.317 billion yuan. Its business scope includes crop planting and sales, processing and sales of agricultural and sideline products, etc. It has certain influence in the field of agricultural seed industry.
In order to regulate the commercial use of Academician Yuan Longping’s name right and portrait right, Yuan Longping signed the Yuan Longping Brand Right License Agreement with Longping Hi-Tech before his death, and the company obtained the exclusive commercial right to use Academician Yuan Longping’s name and portrait in its business activities.
On April 20, 2020, Longping Hi-Tech discovered that Yuanmi Company, Qianxun (Hangzhou) Culture Media Co., Ltd., Huang Wei (net name "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 notarization and evidence collection, and preserved the relevant contents of Yuanmi Company’s WeChat WeChat official account, company website and Taobao shop.
On April 23, 2020, Longping Hi-Tech issued a "Warning Letter" to Yuanmi Company, demanding that Yuanmi Company "immediately stop selling counterfeit products on the Internet and other channels ‘ Yuan Longping ’ The behavior of selling infringing goods, such as rice, removes relevant web pages; Without legal authorization, it is forbidden to use Yuan Longping’s related names, portraits and trademarks for commercial promotion, or to establish contact with Yuan Longping when promoting related commodities. ".
On the same day, Longping Hi-Tech also issued a Warning Letter to Qianxun (Hangzhou) Culture Media Co., Ltd., and the products of Yuanmi Agricultural Technology Co., Ltd. were suspended from live broadcast. Since Yuanmi Company has never stopped using Yuan Longping’s name and portrait in its WeChat WeChat official account and related articles on its website, Longping Hi-Tech sued the court.
On April 26th, The Paper logged into official website of Yuanmi Company, and the company said, "‘ Yuan Mi ’ It is the brand of Yuanmi Agricultural Technology Co., Ltd. and the terminal brand of sea rice. "
The official website News Center of the company reprinted a report of Jinan Daily on May 23rd, 2021. The report writes: A company in Jinan once participated in the "Sea Rice" project in Yuan Longping, and will launch the "Revival of Yellow River Rice" project in Pingyin, inheriting Yuan Lao’s legacy that "rice should not only be full but also eat well", so that more people can eat high-quality rice — — The name of this company is "Yuanmi", which is authorized by Yuan Longping himself.
The report also interviewed Liu Rihui, chairman of Yuanmi Agricultural Technology Co., Ltd. According to the report, "Yuanmi" is the first terminal brand of sea rice, and it is a market-oriented promotion subject based on the Sea Rice Research and Development Center led by Yuan Longping. Yuan Longping authorized the word "Yuan" as the brand name for Yuanmi. "Under the active promotion of Yuan Mi, on October 15, 2019, Yuan Longping met with Viya at Changsha National Hybrid Rice Research Center and authorized Viya to be ‘ Chinese pioneers ’ Ambassador for promotion of sea rice. On October 16th, 430,000 kilograms of ‘ Yuan Mi ’ It was sold out in one second in the Viya live broadcast room and sold to all parts of the country through the Taobao live broadcast platform. It is a milestone and important measure for sea rice to enter the Taobao live broadcast room and empower agricultural ecology with the Internet. "
Yuanmi Company sued for confirmation of non-infringement, and the court ruled that it was transferred to Changsha Intermediate People’s Court for joint trial.
According to a ruling of Lixia District People’s Court published by China Judgment Document Network, Yuanmi Company filed a lawsuit with the court, requesting to confirm that its use of words and portraits related to "Yuan Longping" did not infringe the exclusive right to use the trademark of "Yuan Longping".
Yuanmi Company claims that Academician Yuan Longping, as an executive of Qingdao Yuance Group Co., Ltd., an affiliated enterprise of Yuanmi Company, jointly developed and created "Yuanmi" sea rice with the plaintiff, and the plaintiff’s use of "Yuan Longping" characters and portraits in the process of sales and publicity is a description of objective facts, which is a legitimate use. At the same time, the plaintiff’s use of "Yuan Longping" characters and portraits in the process of sales and publicity is not a trademark use. In the publicity and sales pages involved in the case, the plaintiff’s official website and the related publicity pages of WeChat WeChat official account all marked "Yuanmi" or "Yuanmi Brand" in a prominent position. When Taobao anchor Viya sold the products of "Yuanmi" live, the plaintiff’s registered trademark of "Yuanmi" was prominently used in the icons and links of related products. The words related to "Yuan Longping" were only statements of facts and did not have the function of identifying the source of goods, so the plaintiff’s behavior did not belong to it. The plaintiff’s use of words and portraits related to "Yuan Longping" is to introduce Academician Yuan Longping, the co-founder of "Yuanmi" brand, and to state the rational use of relevant background materials of commodities.
The Lixia District Court of Jinan held that this case was a dispute over the confirmation of non-infringement of trademark rights. However, before Yuanmi Company filed a lawsuit, Longping Hi-Tech sued Yuanmi Company for stopping using the name of "Yuan Longping" and the portrait of Academician Yuan Longping, and Changsha Intermediate People’s Court filed a case on July 30, 2020. The Lixia Court held that the above two cases were non-infringement litigation and infringement litigation arising from the same fact, both of which were independent litigation. This case was not absorbed because the other party filed an infringement lawsuit, but in order to avoid repeated trials in different courts on the same fact, it should be combined according to law.
Finally, the case was ruled to be transferred to the Intermediate People’s Court of Changsha City, Hunan Province.
The name and portrait of Academician Yuan Longping were used many times when selling "Yuan Mi" in Viya Live Studio. Hunan high court map
Hunan court: it constituted unfair competition and awarded 100,000 yuan.
In response to Longping Hi-Tech’s infringement lawsuit against Yuanmi Company, Changsha Intermediate People’s Court found that Yuanmi Company’s use of Yuan Longping’s name and portrait in its WeChat WeChat official account and related articles on its website belongs to the introduction and publicity by associating Academician Yuan Longping’s name and portrait with its company and its sea rice products, and all belong to commercial use. This behavior will confuse consumers and make them think that Yuanmi Company’s products are recommended or endorsed by Academician Yuan Longping.
In the Cooperation Agreement signed by Yuanmi Company and Academician Yuan Longping in 2018, Yuan Longping only provided comprehensive guidance for Yuanmi Company’s scientific research in the field of rice taste and food safety. The matters agreed in the Cooperation Agreement have nothing to do with the R&D and promotion of sea rice products, nor does it involve the relevant agreement that Yuan Longping allows Yuanmi Company to use its name and portrait in its business activities. Yuanmi Company has also failed to submit effective evidence to prove that the sea rice products involved are the fact that Yuan Longping and his R&D team have researched and developed them.
The court held that Academician Yuan Longping had made great contributions to human food security, and all kinds of social subjects should respect his name and portrait, and use it prudently and normatively. In particular, business entities should adhere to the principle of seeking truth from facts when publicizing their cooperation with Yuan Longping, and should not fabricate and exaggerate the degree of cooperation between the two sides, so as to mislead consumers and gain commercial benefits.
In this case, Yuanmi Company made commercial use of Yuan Longping’s name and portrait in articles promoting products of companies such as sea rice without permission, but it could not prove the degree of correlation between Yuan Longping and its promotional products, nor could it prove that the degree of correlation was consistent with the contents described in the promotional articles involved.
The court held that the commercial use of Yuanmi Company infringed the commercial exclusive license rights of Yuan Longping’s name and portrait obtained by Longping Hi-Tech, and violated the principle of good faith and recognized business ethics, which easily led to confusion and misunderstanding among consumers and increased the risk of mistaken purchase, and it was an unfair competition situation regulated by Article 2 and Item 4 of Article 6 of the Anti-Unfair Competition Law. Therefore, it was decided that Yuanmi Company would immediately stop the unfair competition in commercial use of Yuan Longping’s name and portrait, and compensate Longping Hi-Tech for its economic loss of 100,000 yuan.
After the judgment of the first instance was made, both parties appealed. The judgment of Hunan High Court in the second instance: the appeal was dismissed and the original judgment was upheld.
Judge’s statement: Longping Hi-Tech’s commercial monopoly on the use of Yuan Longping’s name and portrait is protected by law.
Academician Yuan Longping is an academician of China Academy of Engineering and an expert in hybrid rice breeding in China. He is known as the "father of hybrid rice" in China. His related research achievements have made great contributions to mankind. Yuan Longping’s name and portrait are deeply rooted in people’s hearts and have a high reputation. Zeng Zhiyan, a senior judge of the Third People’s Court of Hunan Higher People’s Court, believes that the use of Academician Yuan Longping’s name and portrait involves not only Yuan Longping’s personal interests, but also social public interests and related commercial interests, and all kinds of social subjects, especially commercial subjects, should be cautious and standardized.
Yuan Longping signed the Yuan Longping Brand Rights License Agreement with Longping Hi-Tech before his death, which comprehensively stipulated the commercial rights of exclusive license to Longping Hi-Tech to use Yuan Longping’s name and portrait in business activities, the scope of license, the scope of license area, the evaluation and payment of license fees, and the license period. After Yuan Longping’s death, his successor made supplementary agreement and confirmation on the licensing period and other matters stipulated in the agreement. This agreement is the true intention of the parties concerned, and it does not violate the laws of our country. The legitimacy and economic attribute of Longping Hi-Tech’s commercial exclusive right to use Yuan Longping’s name and portrait based on this agreement should be protected by law.
However, Yuanmi Agricultural Science and Technology Co., Ltd. used Yuan Longping’s name and portrait in articles related to the promotion of products such as sea rice without permission when the Cooperation Agreement signed with Yuan Longping was not related to the R&D and promotion of sea rice, and there was no evidence to prove that the sea rice products promoted by Yuanmi Agricultural Science and Technology Co., Ltd. were developed by Academician Yuan Longping or his R&D team, which had obvious subjective intention to cling to Yuan Longping’s popularity and grab the commercial value behind Yuan Longping’s name and portrait. Its commercial use violates the principle of good faith, disturbs the market competition order and violates the recognized business ethics, and should be punished by law.
"Yuan Longping", a brand of China grain, is the fruit of wisdom and sweat of several generations of China scientists, such as Academician Yuan Longping, who have worked hard to develop hybrid rice. The court’s timely regulation of unfair competition behavior of Yuanmi Agricultural Science and Technology Co., Ltd. is conducive to standardizing the market competition order and promoting the rapid development of the industry, which fully embodies the people’s court’s judicial function and highly respects and strongly protects the scientific research achievements of scientists including Yuan Longping.