Suzhou L 'Oreal Cosmetics Company Cosmetics Production Workshop. Because of the trademark dispute, L 'Oreal has quietly changed the Chinese name of NUTRIX ROYAL series products from "Mi Yan" to "Yang Mi".
65438+February 1, L 'Oré al China headquarters moved into the brand-new Shanghai Transocean Building. As a super company in the cosmetics industry, L 'Oreal's sales in China reached 5.445 billion yuan last year, up 30% year-on-year. In the first half of this year, the sales of L 'Oré al China Company increased by more than 30% again.
Guangzhou Huilin Beauty and Health Products Trading Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Huilin Company"), which is more than 1000 kilometers away, is running its own limited business in an alley in Yuexiu District, Guangzhou. The total office space of this small company is not as big as the front desk of L 'Oré al's China headquarters.
If it weren't for the trademark crash, no one would compare the two companies together. Six days later, they went to court in Guangzhou Intermediate People's Court.
Two "Rose Tong" surfaced. There is a "Jianhua Beauty Studio" named after the boss Ke Jianhua in Wenzhou, Zhejiang. The brand "Miyan" has been distributed for five or six years, and it also provides customers with a set of perfect after-sales care services. Because of careful management, it is also famous in the local area. But since 2007, some customers began to ask Ke Jianhua, saying, "Is your honey face a fake product of Lancome?" Ke Jianhua told reporters: "Many old customers feel that our studio is unreliable and will not buy our products and services again."
A beauty salon named "Liyan Meier" in Guangzhou has also fallen into a similar dilemma. "Although Lancome Miyan has been removed from the shelves, we have developed several new customers," Li, the boss of Liyan Meier, told reporters. "But many lost old customers are irreparable."
Similar customer feedback has been bothering Zheng Yaoguang, the boss of Huilin Company since 2006. He told reporters: Huilin Company's "Rose Tong" started production in 2000, started publicity in 200 1, and started sales in 2002. In 2004, it was approved to register the trademark of "Rose Tong", and its service life was up to 20 14. "Hui Lin Mi Yan" was originally an American product. At first, it was just a subcontract. Later, because it was found that China people were not suitable for making this product, Huilin Company cooperated with Jinan University 1999 to improve it and decided to make its own brand.
Just when Huilin Company started to stand on its own feet, in 2006, "Lancome Honey Face" suddenly appeared in the market, and Zheng Yaoguang watched his market being swept away by this airborne soldier from France. "Lancome Honey Face" was formerly NUTRIX nourishing cream 1936 which went on sale in Europe. To commemorate the 70th anniversary of NUTRIX's listing, Lancome Laboratories launched NUTRIX ROYAL (Chinese name: Honey Nourishing) series in 2006, combining the original "secret recipe" and the latest scientific research achievements.
With the continuous progress in the recognition of Lancome Miyan series, the two "Miyan" have shown a changing trend. The limited business of Huilin Company is going from bad to worse. Zheng Yaoguang believes that "Mi Yan" is its registered trademark, and Lancome used it without permission, infringing Kelly's exclusive right to use the trademark. "Because of the strength of Lancome international brand, Huilin Company took the blame for this infringement." On July 20, 2007, Zheng Yaoguang complained to Guangzhou and Shanghai Industrial and Commercial Bureau respectively. L 'Oré al then negotiated with Huilin Company. The general idea is that the reporter visited several L 'Oré al Lancome dealerships in Guangzhou, and the sales staff all said that the sales of "Mi Yan" series were suspended at present. While "Mi Yan" products were removed from the shelves, Zhou Genliang, a public relations officer of L 'Oré al (China), claimed in an interview with the media that "Lancome products are selling normally in various markets." At present, the Chinese name of NUTRIX ROYAL series products has been changed from "Mi Yan" to "Yang Mi" on Lancome official website.
The reporter saw a written mediation agreement without the name of L 'Oré al in Huilin Company. In the agreement, L 'Oré al admitted that it "misused" the trademark "Mi Yan" on Lancome products, and was willing to pay compensation of 6,543.8+0,000 yuan to settle the incident. There is also a striking clause in the agreement: Huilin Company shall not publicize this event in any form in the future.
"In principle, we will not agree to compensation and must apologize publicly." This is Zheng Yaoguang's attitude. He said that the company spends millions of yuan on brand advertising every year, and Mi Yan also has a certain popularity in the industry. L 'Oré al's statement of "abuse" is untenable. His attorney also questioned the word "misuse": "If it was not a trademark, the word" Rose Tong "could not be found in the dictionary at all. There are so many Chinese characters in China, how can it be so clever? Moreover, there are not many brands in China, so it is impossible for L 'Oré al to enter China without making an investigation. "
The reporter then contacted L 'Oré al (China) Company and asked how L 'Oré al formulated the brand name "Mi Yan". About an hour later, L 'Oreal called back and said that she refused to accept any interview about Mi Yan's trademark.
A few days later, the reporter found Lan Zhen Zhen, vice president of L 'Oré al China, and she said, "I can only say that the determination of L 'Oré al brand name is a rather complicated process. I can't talk now. We'll talk about it when the event has the result. "Lan also mentioned that there are so many China brands in Hongkong, Taiwan Province and Chinese mainland, and many factories are also producing counterfeit L 'Oré al products. The implication is that L 'Oré al is really worried about preventing infringement and avoiding the abuse of existing trademarks. " We have been working hard in a positive direction. The market is always imperfect. It depends on people to improve, not on catching shadows. "
As the mediation agreement presented by Huilin Company has no title, the reporter cannot judge its authenticity. According to its introduction, this agreement was forwarded through the Trademark Office of Guangzhou Administration for Industry and Commerce. Because of the slow progress of the complaint, Huilin Company has filed a trademark infringement lawsuit with Guangzhou Intermediate People's Court, and the case will be heard on June 5438+1October 8, 2009.
At this time, a "reply" from the State Administration for Industry and Commerce made the balance of development fluctuate. The reporter saw a copy of the reply, and the last sentence was: "According to the letter and the attached materials, our bureau believes that the words" Lancome Miyan Nourishing Essence Milk "used by L 'Oré al (China) Co., Ltd. on the labels of the cosmetics products it sells are not similar to the registered trademark No.3363750".
This undoubtedly dealt a blow to Huilin Company, which thought it was certain. Zheng Yaoguang did not hesitate to take the Trademark Office of the State Administration for Industry and Commerce to court. On the other hand, L 'Oré al breathed a sigh of relief temporarily. Because of the affirmation of national authority, since August this year, its willingness to negotiate has obviously decreased, and cosmetics are wholesale. When talking about this dispute, Lan, vice president of L 'Oré al China, said that "some companies are obviously premeditated", from which it can be seen that L 'Oré al does not seem to rule out the possibility that Huilin Company may plan malicious litigation, and they may also launch a counterattack.
"This is really the first complaint of the wicked." Zheng Yaoguang's words made the incident more explosive.
At present, this infringement case has been set as a model by many trademark law experts and scholars, and its trend will play an exemplary role in future trademark infringement cases. Chen Weimin, a judge of Guangzhou Intermediate People's Court who will be in charge of hearing the case on June 8, 65438, told reporters that there are many trademark infringement cases, but most of them are grassroots products "alongside famous brands", and cases like "Rose Tong" suing foreign brands for infringement are rare. He guessed: "Maybe L 'Oré al will try to use' Mi Yan' as the unique name of a famous commodity to defend it, just like Nippon Company before. "
Nippon owns two best-selling China brands "Medley" and "Li Yongde", but these two brands were registered by Shantou Gangtong Trading Company as early as 1994, and their trademarks were transferred to Bao Xili Chemical in 2000. Subsequently, as the trademark registrants of "Meideli" and "Li Yongde", Baoxing sued Nippon for trademark infringement. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, it was proved that these two trademarks had been used in China in 1960s and 1970s, with a history of more than 40 years. The court finally ruled that Nippon Company did not constitute infringement. According to international practice and relevant laws and regulations, although it is not registered in China, Nippon has formed a unique name as a famous commodity when using the names of "Medeli" and "Li Yongde", which enjoys legal protection. The State Trademark Review and Adjudication Board ruled that the trademark of Baoxili Company was revoked, and Baoxili Company published an apology announcement on the front page of Beijing Evening News. This trademark lawsuit caused great controversy in the industry that year.
"Now the company has a strong sense of trademark, and similar trademarks will be registered as defensive trademarks in advance." Chen Weimin said, "However, some companies may not wait for successful trademark registration, so they will put their products on the market first. However, under normal circumstances, enterprises will know whether the trademark has been used when they check it on the trademark online, or they can entrust a professional company to check it, which is very fast. " The reporter randomly entered the word "Rose Tong" on China Trademark Online, and found the trademark with registration number of 3363750 in less than one second.
Zheng Yaoguang, the head of Huilin Company, told the reporter: "Sometimes, looking at these two products, I don't even believe that L 'Oré al will use our trademark fraudulently. I think L 'Oré al, as the best company, eliminated our small brand in this way. "
Lan, vice president of L 'Oré al China, has repeatedly exaggerated, and he doesn't want to see the current untrue voice interfere with the fairness of the lawsuit. What impressed the reporter the most was: "We committed a crime before the law came into effect."
The joys and sorrows of L 'Oré al, a giant company in the cosmetics industry, has always been shrouded in a halo. "Top Ten Charitable Enterprises", "Top 500 Contributors of China in 2007" (released by Southern Weekend) and "Top 50 Most Admired Enterprises in the World in 2008" (American Fortune magazine)?
These names, with their recent involvement in Guangzhou "Rose Tong" and Hangzhou "George? Armani's infringement incident has formed a strong contrast.
Women's money is usually easy to earn, especially in the cosmetics market in China. L 'Oré al has been planning for a long time, especially after China's entry into WTO. Four years ago, L 'Oré al, known as the "brand acquisition expert", integrated Xiao * * within 50 days, and then acquired Yuxi in an instant to further seize the China market. Four years later, in 2008, 95% of L 'Oré al's products sold in China were produced in China, and its annual growth rate of 30% exceeded the average level of China market by three times. The market ranking of L 'Oré al also rose from the third place before the acquisition of Little Nurse to the second place. It can be said that L 'Oré al has rich experience in dealing with local brands in China.
However, another contest with Huilin Company also reminded L 'Oré al that although domestic cosmetics enterprises are mainly small and medium-sized enterprises, the research and development of scientific formulas is still in the cottage stage and cannot compete with foreign giants; Although the products of large companies can sell for hundreds, while local brands can only sell for dozens or even a few, it is not easy to "provoke". No matter what happens to ultimate judgment, L 'Oré al may be more cautious in the face of brand competition in the future.
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