Fake Store Scandal of Yonghe Soy Milk

 soybean & fried fritters

On May 22, a Yonghe Soy Milk store in Yiwu, Zhejiang was said to have had its soybean milk stirred directly with employee’s arms. The store was closed and the case is under investigation at present.

Yonghe Soy Milk said that the store was fake since there’s no Yonghe store in Yiwu.

Reporter found that only 8 of the 29 Yonghe Soy Milk stores that can be traced in Beijing are genuine brands registered on the official website.

In fact, the trademark dispute of Yonghe Soy Milk has been a long-running headache for the Taiwan-based enterprise.

The Yonghe Soy Milk brand was founded in 1982 by Taiwan Hongqi Food Co., Ltd., and came to the mainland in 1995. With the continuous expansion of the influence of Yonghe Soymilk brand, the company was formally established in December 2009 - Yonghe Food (China) Co., Ltd. Until now, 281 stores can be searched on the official website. Zhejiang Province has 36 stores but not include this one that involved in the scandal.

Among all the trademark disputes of Yong He, the most famous one occurred with Yonghe King.

Yonghe King, a Chinese fast-food restaurant that specializes in noodles, first appeared in 1996 and later in 1997, it successfully registered the Yonghe King trademark.

In fact, Yonghe King is registered as a catering category and can provide a variety of food products, while “Yonghe Soymilk” is registered as a soymilk category which is limited in product categories, and the two are highly similar in terms of products and uses. That’s why Yonghe Soy Milk has been frequently drawn into the mire of intellectual property rights protection.

Those who work in catering circle said that at the time when Yonghe Soy Milk was founded, trademark laws and regulations were not comprehensive enough, and market information was even more asymmetric. It’s quite frustrating that companies are slow to perceive infringement on the one hand, and on the other, it would be very difficult to crack down on infringement except for issuing a clarification statement.

Copycat is nothing rare. Better trademark protection, IP regime and regulatory system would be the key for business entities to safeguard their lawful rights. Yang Xuefen, General manager of Rule Spotlight, said that most catering enterprises rose from a small store without a trademark. Many companies easily forgot that trademark registration would cost nearly a year. If the brand went virus during the critical year, other companies would be attracted. Some companies may even squat the trademark.

May 26, 2019 

Source: Beijing Business Today