Shared Car Service Compensates 500,000 for Posting Peppa Pig Image
According to Beijing Internet Court, recently, Beijing TOGO Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as TOGO), due to posting “Peppa Pig” images on its shared vehicles without permission, was sued by the copyright owners, Entertainment One UK Limited (hereinafter referred to as Entertainment One) and Astley Baker Davies Limited (hereinafter referred to as ABD). On August 15, 2019, Beijing Internet Court made the first-instance judgment that the defendant had infringed the plaintiff’s right to copy and disseminate information on the Internet; the defendant was ordered to immediately stop the infringement and compensate for economic losses and reasonable expenses totaling 500,000 Yuan.
Entertainment One and ABD argued that the cartoon series Peppa Pig, and the related products developed based on its characters, including toys and cartoon books have extremely high reputation and commercial value. On June 4, 2014, the plaintiff registered copyright of Peppa Pig, George Pig, Daddy Pig, and Mommy Pig in China’s National Copyright Administration, and enjoyed copyright in art works related to Peppa Pig’s image in accordance with the law.
During the Fifteenth Beijing International Automobile Exhibition held from April 25 to May 4, 2018, the defendant TOGO arbitrarily posted “Peppa Pig” images on the TOGO shared vehicles for commercial promotion without permission from the plaintiff, and the related activities were simultaneously spread on its WeChat public account, Sina Weibo and other major media.
The court decided that the defendant’s use of the Peppa Pig cartoon and Peppa Pig art works to publicize and promote its shared car service is a kind of advertisement and endorsement, which require the plaintiff’s permission and payment of license fees. The court dismissed the plaintiff’s other claims and ordered the defendant to compensate the plaintiff for economic losses and reasonable expenses totaling 500,000 Yuan within ten days from the date the judgment came into effect, and immediately stop infringing the plaintiff’s right to copy and disseminate information of the Peppa Pig art works on the Internet.
October 20, 2019
Source: People.cn
Photo from: 699pic.com
