Date: March 24, 2021

In June 2018, a documentary about barbecue food titled "A Stranger of Life" was broadcast on various online platforms and received wide acclaim. The day after the shooting, the operator of the jilin changchun m-victory charcoal barbecue cylinder head office Guo Wanqiang application for registration on the food and beverage category "life is a series of" brand, and in 2019, opened in April to "life" in a string of Guo Wanqiang hanging furnace grill for the name of the new store, "life is a series of" four word is widely used to store, menus, etc. At the same time, the store also published advertisements through online platforms such as Dianping, claiming that "life is a string of Bang Square stores", "life is a string of national stores" and "life is a string of barbecue offline experience stores" to develop franchises.

In April 2020, Shanghai Kuanyu Digital Technology Co., Ltd. and Banbanner (Shanghai) Digital Media Co., Ltd., the producers of the documentary "A Sling of Life", sued Guo Wanqiang's barbecue restaurant and Shanghai Hantao Information Consulting Co., Ltd., the operator of Dianping, on the grounds of unauthorized use of influential product names. In September of the same year, the State Intellectual Property Office announced the invalidation of Guo Wanqiang's trademark "Life Yichuan" on the grounds that it violated the principle of good faith and was registered by unfair means.

The two plaintiffs believe that the barbecue shop of the defendant's behavior constitutes the unauthorized use of the commodity name of the plaintiff that has certain influence, and the operator of Dianping constitutes the infringement of assistance. They require the two defendants to stop the unfair competition behavior involved in the case, and at the same time require the barbecue shop of the defendant to eliminate the influence, compensate for the economic loss and reasonable expenses of RMB 5 million.

The defendant barbecue restaurant argued that the "life string" trademark was declared invalid, has filed an administrative lawsuit, which is still under trial. Barbeque restaurant belongs to the catering service industry, which does not belong to the same category with the title of the program claimed by the two plaintiffs, so it does not constitute unfair competition. The operator of Dianping has argued that it has fulfilled its reasonable censorship obligations and does not constitute unfair competition.

At 2 p.m. on March 24, 2021, the case was publicly heard in Shanghai Pudong Court in the afternoon of March 24. The case was not pronounced in court.

Source: China Intellectual Property Magazine