Anta Involved In "Plagiarism" Whirlpool, Alleged Infringement Of Multiple Products

In the global shoe and clothing industry, there is an endless stream of "plagiarism" between brands and alleged patent infringement.

"From the domestic market, the phenomenon of piracy, counterfeiting and selling of products in some areas and areas has made consumers unable to defend themselves, and they have also suffered huge losses."

In 2011, during the four session of the eleven National People's Congress, as the representative of Jinjiang's National People's Congress and founder of Anta, Ding Shizhong submitted a motion on increasing the protection of intellectual property rights and protecting China's "national brand". When it came to saying this paragraph, it was impossible to anticipate that 7 years later, Anta itself was accused of plagiarism.

Just recently, the International Financial Daily reporter received an exclusive announcement from the agent lawyer of Hua Hua brand design service (Shenzhen) Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Hua Hua company"), and Anta, a sports giant, was suspected to have plagiarized the children's book bag with many designs and patent protection of Hua Hua company, and there was alleged infringement of his intellectual property rights.

"We hope that Anta will clarify the facts and let consumers realize that the design and products of Hua Hua company are original.

Secondly, the products that are suspected to be infringed on the design of the appearance of the plant will be stopped and the products related to sale are stopped. "

In response to the appeal, the company said this.

When visiting the store, the reporter noticed that the product was the latest 3 models in the Anta store, with more than one style.

The sales staff of Anta stores said that the sales of these bags were particularly hot at the moment.

In response to the above, the reporter interviewed Anta on the afternoon of August 9th.

In reply to the mail, Anta said it was investigating.

"We will share with you after the results come out."

1, Anta children's schoolbags suspected of plagiarism

Because Anta's influence in China's sporting goods industry is almost identical with the products that its company has already patented, it is quite surprising that the company has been selling products.

In the afternoon of August 8th, the lawyer of Hua Hua company sent a 20 page "evidence" to the International Financial Daily reporter.

It covers the R & D background, patent application of Anta's related products, and the comparison map of products sold in stores.

The lawyer said that at present, Anta KIDS stores in major cities across the country were found to sell a large number of products similar to the design of the children's schoolbag design of MoonRock, a dream music MR1, MR3 and MR7 series of Hua Hua company's own brand, and as early as 2017, Hua Hua company had applied for patent protection for the shape design of the series of schoolbags.

It is alleged that in May 31st of this year, Ye Zihui, CEO of Hua Hua company, unknowingly discovered that Anta children's wear counters were selling highly similar products with the appearance of MoonRock's dream bag, when it was inspecting Guangzhou shopping malls. This immediately aroused the attention of Ye Zihui and Hua Hua company. Since then, it has begun to investigate and collect evidence throughout the country.

According to the information provided by Hua Hua company, many children's schoolbags sold by Anta stores are suspected to be plagiarized by MoonRock, MR1, MR3 and MR7 children's schoolbags.

According to the preliminary investigation, in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Dongguan and other places, a total of more than 100 Anta entities are involved in the sale of these products. At the same time, there are several outlets in many e-commerce platforms that involve selling these products.

The company has authorized 9 patents, including 1 invention patents, 3 utility models and 5 designs, and Anta's MR1, MR3 and MR7 children's schoolbags are included in the 5 patents of design.

The reporter also got the patent certificate of the design of the foregoing products of Hua Hua company.

Among them, the patent application date for MR1 series schoolbags is November 4, 2016, and the authorized announcement date is January 4, 2017.

According to the certificate, the duration of this patent right is 10 years.

In addition, the patent notification date for MR3 and MR7 series schoolbags is February 15, 2017 and August 8, 2017 respectively.

Hua Hua said that because of the practice of Anta's plagiarism, its direct sales loss in 2018 was estimated to be about 7 million 500 thousand yuan, while the cost of pre design, R & D, testing and promotion has not yet been calculated.

To this end, reporters visited Shanghai as part of Anta's physical stores.

In a store located in the community business center of Putuo District, the bags with similar appearance of MR1, MR3 and MR7 products in the patent certificate of Hua Hua company are hung on the conspicuous shelves.

"These bags are selling very hot now. The products in our shop are all newly arrived, and all of them have been sold out before."

A salesperson said so.

Reporters noted that the number of schoolbags similar to that of Hua Hua company was at the beginning of 39838151-, 39838152- and 39838153- respectively. According to different colors, a number was also tagged behind.

In addition, the price of schoolbags is not high. The price of the three models is 319 yuan, 279 yuan and 219 yuan respectively.

When the reporter mentioned that these products were similar to the appearance of another brand, a salesperson also knew that the salesperson did not reply directly after being asked whether Anta was imitating the production.

The reporter looked at the flagship store of MoonRock Jingdong, and found that the price of the dream children's schoolbag was generally between 720-990 yuan, and only a few styles were around 300 yuan.

The vast majority of children's schoolbags in Anta's Jingdong store are priced at 119-199 yuan, and the price of a few styles is over 300 yuan.

2, do not rule out the legal channels.

Compared with Anta, shortly after its establishment, Hua Hua was ignorant, but its founder had long experience in sports products.

According to industrial and commercial data, the plant was founded in May 29, 2015 with a registered capital of 15 million 306 thousand and 200 yuan. The registered address is Shenzhen, Guangdong province. Its business scope is brand management, brand design, service and consultation, bags, handbags, bags, wholesale, retail trade import and export and related businesses, and the legal representative is Huang Huadong.

According to "International Financial Daily" reporter, from the early 80s of last century, Huang Donghua has successively designed, manufactured and sold the world famous brands such as Adidas, Kappa, Nike, Puma and Samsonite.

Since then, it has begun to pform into retail direct trade, and has also established its own brand MoonRock dream bag and Ellehammer travel bags when acting as a well-known brand such as CAT.

According to the company's statement, the MoonRock dream dream schoolbag has been researched and developed since the second half of 2015. It was designed by the spine neurologist and the schoolbag designer. It has undergone six improvements and repeated tests before and after.

After a year, it was released in 2016 in Hongkong, China.

Beginning in June 2017, Hua Hua company pushed its products to mainland China and Taiwan market in China.

Starting from 2018, the sales of MoonRock dream music products by Hua Hua company has been online and offline. The online self flagship store has its own website, which is also cooperating with the famous network platforms in China. It works together with the famous chain retail stores and high-end bookstores (including Sam's member stores, Chenguang stationery, Yan Di bookstore, Yong Wang Department store, Shenzhen Hong Wen bookstore, Guangzhou bookstore, etc.), and established a sales office in Shanghai to continue expanding the sales channels and markets throughout the country. "In 2018,

The lawyer of Hua Hua told reporters.

He said that he had predicted that the annual income of MoonRock dream products in 2018 would reach 10 million yuan.

In the view of Hua Hua company, when its brand has just entered the mainland market, Anta, a famous sporting goods company in China, produces and sells almost the same schoolbag products which are almost identical to the designs of Hua Hua company.

"Anta company, after its large-scale sales promotion through its powerful sales channels, will make consumers mistaken that Anta is the originator of the design of MoonRock Meng Le schoolbag, which has created a huge obstacle to the establishment of a large scale entry into the mainland market and the establishment of sales channels, and at the same time, it also brings a certain degree of distrust to the cooperative customers of the current and future customers of the plant, and these effects are immeasurable."

According to the aforementioned attorney, MoonRock dream brand is based on the concept of protecting the spine health. Anta only mimics the appearance and lacks the effective function of back ridge protection. The cost of its products is much lower than that of Hua Hua company, which has an impact on the promotion and pricing of the latter products of Hua Hua company.

Hua Hua admitted to reporters that he hoped Anta could clarify the facts and let consumers realize that the design and products of Hua Hua company are original. Anta's products are almost the same as those of Hua Hua's design patent.

It is also hoped that Anta can drop the products suspected of infringing on China's exterior designs and stop selling related products.

"Hua Hua company reserves the right to follow suit to safeguard its rights and make compensation for its losses."

Anta attorney said.

3, Anta had "retired" Brooks.

In the sporting goods industry, Anta's development in recent years is particularly hot.

The "keep moving never stops" Anta was founded in 1991. 10 years later, while completing the pition from the production of single product to the operation of comprehensive sporting goods, Anta also moved from Jinjiang, Fujian to the whole country and began to be well known to the public.

In July 2007, Anta was successfully listed on the HKEx, and after ten years of grinding, Anta, now one of the largest market capitalization companies, has developed into the highest value apparel retail group in China and the largest comprehensive sporting goods company.

The international finance daily noted that in the past, Anta's investment in product research and development accounted for a continuous rise in the proportion of sales costs.

Anta's 2017 annual report shows that between 2013 and 2017, the annual R & D activity cost ratio (percentage of sales cost) is 4%, 4.3%, 5.2%, 5.1% and 5.7% respectively.

In the past, Anta also paid special attention to intellectual property protection.

During the four session of the eleven National People's Congress, Ding Shizhong, a deputy to the National People's Congress, proposed a motion entitled "increasing the protection of intellectual property rights and protecting China's" national brand ".

It is necessary to consistently crack down on intellectual property crimes, strengthen the protection of the right to know and deepen the protection of intellectual property rights.

A typical case occurred in the case of Anta's intellectual property rights protection.

In 2017, Brooks, one of the world's top four running shoes brands, opened the business platform and officially entered the Chinese market.

However, just a few months later, because of its high similarity with Anta's trademark and the significance of its trademark, there were similarities in the same meaning. In August 2017, Brooks was referred to the Quanzhou people's court in Fujian province for trademark infringement.

At the same time, Anta filed a request to order Brooks to stop the infringement and compensate for the economic losses caused by the infringement to Anta.

Finally, in December 2017, Brooks was sentenced by the court to lose the lawsuit, and the products were all off the shelves. At that time, it was only online for 5 months in China.

However, at present, the children's schoolbags launched for their own families are the same.

Anta has not yet given the results of the specific investigation.

Marketing expert Lu Shengzhen told reporters that footwear enterprises and many of our high technology industries, the current R & D capabilities and international brand comparison, the general gap in 10 years or even longer distance, because the majority of foreign footwear enterprises have more than 40 years to 70 years of history, and China's sports footwear brand growth is mostly only about 20 years of history.

"Besides, our country

Most of them start with the imitation of the brands of developed countries, and so far, this inertia has not been broken. "

Lu Shengzhen said so.

According to the industry, the R & D investment of the global footwear enterprises accounts for about 5% of the total sales, and the R & D investment of China's footwear enterprises is between 1% and 1.8% of the total sales volume.

The scarcity of R & D talent and the shortage of funds caused by low input make domestic footwear enterprises more willing to take shortcuts to imitate others.

"If there is plagiarism in Anta, it means that Anta has a loophole in product design management and control, and needs reflection and rectification.

In the local sports brand, Anta first established a sports science laboratory, invested huge amounts of research and development every year, which means Anta is committed to innovation and R & D drive.

Ma Gang, independent observer for footwear industry, said in an interview.

Sun Jiaen, chairman of the trade secret network, said that the matter involving patents should be very prudent, because more than 70% of China's appearance patents and utility models patents are "unstable".

The so-called "instability" is an enterprise with the corresponding design patent certificate, but it is possible that enterprises in Japan, Korea, the United States and other countries have made applications before.

"Unstable" is, in other countries, there may be an earlier patent application.

Is Anta invaded?

The right is not easy to say.

If Hua Hua company wants to sue, it needs to get the patent evaluation report to the State Intellectual Property Office. The State Intellectual Property Office will search all the patents in the world, and will issue a submission to prove the company's appearance patent certificate status, which is recognized by the national court.

If it is unstable, the patent certificate may be declared invalid and the prosecution is useless. "

Sun Jiaen said.

Industry observation

Shoes and clothing industry "plagiarism" is difficult to produce evidence.

Globally

The "plagiarism" between brands and the alleged infringement of patent rights can be said to emerge one after another.

In order to reduce this kind of thing, brand is also working hard.

For example, in order to prevent counterfeit goods and plagiarism, Zegna (Ermenegildo Zegna) also specializes in intellectual property departments, and jeans brand "Levi" s also has its own investigation team.

But fashion brands still find it difficult to define "plagiarism".

Sun Jiaen, chairman of the trade secret network, told the "International Finance News" reporter, specifically to China.

At present, there are many patent cases, but safeguarding rights is very difficult, because the burden of proof is very difficult, and the final confirmation must be tried by the court.

Marketing expert Lu Shengzhen pointed out that imitation and plagiarism are common problems at present, including enterprises like Nike, Puma and Adi, which have had different degrees of imitation or plagiarism, but these global brands have already made conciliation through various means such as patent authorization and economic redemption.

Domestic brands are more inclined to violent imitation and speculative plagiarism, which is difficult to change in the short term, because the whole product innovation is involved.

Background and the development of science and technology.

In the view of the industry, the trend of fast fashion of shoes and clothing products is becoming more and more obvious, so the speed of innovation is more and more demanding.

"While safeguarding rights, there may be a replacement in a product season. For the consideration of the cost of safeguarding rights, if it is not the infringement of the core technology patent and the infringement of classic style, many enterprises are unwilling to protect their rights."

In reply to the question of the difficulty in safeguarding intellectual property rights, Lu Shengzhen said so.

He believes that others do not protect their rights does not mean that enterprises can indulge in imitation, especially for brand enterprises, the result of imitation is always in the shadow of others, self renewal ability will gradually lose, and will not establish a real competitiveness, which is a lot of our industry need to think together.

Shoes and clothing

Independent observer Ma Gang said, on the whole, in the protection of intellectual property rights, enterprises should be more self-discipline, more intellectual property awareness, and form an atmosphere of respecting intellectual property rights. On the other hand, in product innovation, we should set benchmarks and guide them.

Push forward in the direction of innovation drive.