"As of now, there has not been a final judgment to determine the trademark infringement of China Red Bull trademark." Recently, in response to the media's report on the first instance judgment of China Red Bull Guangzhou Tianhe Court, China Red Bull issued a statement saying: We will continue our original intention and mission for 27 years, continue our legal production and sales of Red Bull vitamin functional beverages, and provide high-quality and healthy beverages to Chinese consumers.
, and it is reasonable to note that in a large supermarket chain in Beijing, the Red Bull vitamin functional beverage of China Red Bull is on sale normally.
Why is Chinese Red Bull so confident?
1.
"We will continue to legally produce and sell Red Bull"
" Recently, the Guangzhou Tianhe District Court made a judgment on the case of trademark infringement and unfair competition in Thailand's Tiansi sued Guangdong Red Bull, Zhuhai Red Bull, Guangzhou Red Bull and other companies (case number: (2016) Guangdong 0106 Minchu No. 15728). The judgment is a first-instance judgment, which does not mean that the judgment takes effect immediately. Our company will appeal to the superior court to safeguard the fundamental interests of our company and related market entities." On May 12, China Red Bull issued a statement in response to the first-instance judgment of the Tianhe District Court.
Nonsense is reasonable to note that the above case refers to the case of Thailand Tiansi suing three Guangdong companies under China Red Bull and Guangdong Aeon Tianhecheng Commercial Co., Ltd. for infringement of trademark rights and unfair competition disputes. The Tianhe District Court made the first instance judgment: The three defendants of China Red Bull immediately stopped producing and selling "Red Bull Vitamin Functional Drinks" and stopped using the company name containing the words "Red Bull". At the same time, they ruled that China Red Bull jointly compensate Tiansi Company for economic losses of RMB 219 million.
In fact, this is not the first time that the Thai Tennis has launched a similar lawsuit. China Red Bull said: In 2016, Thailand Tennis initiated several lawsuits against China Red Bull and manufacturers, sellers, channel merchants, etc.
"We will continue our original aspiration and mission for 27 years, continue to legally produce and sell Red Bull vitamin functional beverages, and provide high-quality and healthy drinks to Chinese consumers." China Red Bull also said this.
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号的歌号的合彩国号的合彩国大学号的合彩国大学号的大学号的大学号的大学号的
2.
China Red Bull: Resolutely defending two core rights
can give China Red Bull such confidence to continue to produce and sell Red Bull vitamin functional beverages, the most important thing is the "50-year agreement". In the view of China Red Bull, this "50-year agreement" is the key and prerequisite for the trial of several litigation cases initiated by Tens.
Previously, there were too many reports about the "50-year agreement": In the 1990s, Thai Tiansi Red Bull beverage products did not meet the market conditions and could not be sold in China. On November 10, 1995, Huabin Group Chairman Yan Bin , on behalf of China Red Bull, negotiated cooperation with Thailand Tiansi and two other state-owned enterprises (i.e. China Food Company and Zhonghao Group) and prepared to introduce Red Bull beverages to China; but at that time, the upper limit for foreign-funded enterprises to approve the establishment of a joint venture was 30 years. In order to ensure the interests of state-owned enterprises and the long-term cooperation of the four parties, the four parties signed a 50-year agreement on that day. The agreement stipulates that within 50 years (i.e., from November 10, 1995 to November 9, 2045), only China Red Bull can produce and sell Red Bull beverages exclusively, and other companies will breach the contract if they commit similar behaviors.
At the same time, when establishing the joint venture "China Red Bull", the joint venture contract signed on November 10, 1995 also stipulated that Thailand Tensile provides trademarks to China Red Bull and trademarks on Red Bull vitamin functional beverage products are part of the assets of the joint venture.
is based on the two core rights of the above-mentioned China Red Bull. In early 2019, China Red Bull sued Thailand Tennis and other parties on the grounds of a "contract dispute", requesting that the above-mentioned 50-year "Agreement" be valid, and at the same time confirming that China Red Bull exclusively enjoys the production and sale of Red Bull beverages in China within the 50-year validity period.
At the same time, on September 9, 2020, as one of the shareholders of the joint venture, Huabin Group applied for arbitration with Shenzhen International Arbitration Court , requesting confirmation of 16 registered trademarks including No. 878072 (i.e. the "Red Bull Series" trademark) belonging to China Red Bull.
"At present, the relevant cases of Shenzhen Qianhai Court and Shenzhen International Arbitration Court have been held, and a judgment or ruling will be made soon," said China Red Bull.
3.
The most critical evidence The original 50-year agreement appears in
Since the 50-year agreement is the key premise, why has this important evidence not been adopted in the dispute between China and foreign Red Bulls so far?
It turns out that the key to this matter is: Previously, what China Red Bull provided was only a copy.
It is understood that although the signatories of the two state-owned enterprises, Zhonghao Group and Zhongfo Company, which signed the 50-year agreement, issued a confirmation letter to prove that the agreement is true, the original has not been found before, which has also put China Red Bull in a certain degree of passivity. For example, in the Supreme People's Court (2020) Supreme People's Court Civil Final No. 394, China Red Bull demanded that it enjoy legitimate rights and interests in the "Red Bull series trademarks", but High Court determined that the agreement was "doubted in authenticity" because " Red Bull Company failed to provide the original agreement (i.e., the 50-year Agreement)".
However, on February 23 this year, China Red Bull issued an external statement claiming that the original was found and that the original agreement had been formally submitted to the Supreme Court as an important basis for the retrial of the above case. This has also become one of the most important "weapons" held by China Red Bull.
China Red Bull also said: "Since 2019, Thailand Tennis has contracted the production and sale of Red Bull beverages to third-party companies, causing serious losses to our company. Our company has submitted it to the judicial authorities for legal responsibility."
What China Red Bull refers to is the "Red Bull Anna Beverage" and "Red Bull Vitamin Flavored Drink" that Thailand's Tennis began to commission other parties to produce and sell a few years ago.
At the same time, the above-mentioned case of China Red Bull in Qianhai Court in Shenzhen was heard on May 5 this year. China Red Bull said that the original 50-year agreement was also submitted during the trial.
4.
Hold important basis has been reported to the supervision department
China Red Bull believes that the above mentioned two cases related to the 50-year agreement in Shenzhen mentioned above should be the previous cases of the trial of a series of trademark infringement litigation initiated by Tianhe Court and Thailand Tiansi since 2016. Both should be based on the above mentioned trial results of the two cases mentioned above in Shenzhen Qianhai Court and Shenzhen International Arbitration Court as the premise basis for the judgment.
"In order to protect the legitimate rights and interests of China Red Bull and affiliated enterprises and safeguard the development of the local real economy, we have urged the relevant courts to suspend the trial of ."
It is understood that in March 2021, National Intellectual Property Office issued the "Guozhi Issued Guarantee to the Tianjin Intellectual Property Office" 43 "Document" in response to the "Tianjin Intellectual Property Office's request to sell Red Bull Vitamin Functional Beverages constitute trademark infringement for Tiansi Pharmaceutical Health Co., Ltd.", the State Intellectual Property Office approved:
" Article 62, Paragraph 3 of the " Trademark Law " stipulates that "In the process of investigating and handling trademark infringement cases, if there is a dispute over the ownership of the trademark right or the right holder filed a trademark infringement lawsuit with the people's court at the same time, the industrial and commercial administrative department may suspend the investigation and punishment of the case. 'If there is a dispute between the parties to the trademark infringement case, etc. If the dispute over the right to use the standard and the result of the case may affect the characterization of the trademark infringement case, it complies with the circumstances stipulated in Article 81 of the "Regulations on Implementation of the Trademark Law", and the provisions on suspension of Article 62, paragraph 3 of the Trademark Law are subject to the provisions on suspension. "
Although the first-instance judgment of Tianhe was not the result of the effective judgment, China Red Bull stated that in order to prevent the failure of the judgment to affect market supervision departments at all levels, it reported the relevant situation to the relevant market supervision and management departments.
5.
Thailand Tensil’s views on the 50-year agreement
Previously,Thailand Tensil had issued public statements several times, firmly denied the existence of the 50-year agreement: On October 16, 2018,Thailand Tensil’s statement stated: “We have never signed the so-called “fifty-year agreement” with Red Bull Vitamin Beverage Co., Ltd. or its related parties.
On November 18, 2020, Thailand Tensi once again stated in a statement: "The so-called 'agre agreement' and the longer operating term are purely nonsense without factual and legal basis"!
For this reason, China Red Bull made it clear: "Thai Tiansi and its attorneys and their attorneys have blatantly violated objective facts in trials at people's courts at all levels, claiming that 'has not signed the agreement' and 'the agreement in question is not authentic', etc. China Red Bull will hold Thailand Tiansi and its attorneys accountable in accordance with the law."
In response to the statement that China Red Bull found the original 50-year agreement, on February 24, Thailand Tiansi also issued a statement, not mentioning the words "never signed", only saying that "Tiansi Group's position on the so-called '50-year agreement' has always been clear... In response to the so-called '50-year agreement' that suddenly appeared this time, Tiansi Group has applied for judicial appraisal in accordance with the law."
"Recently, China Red Bull found the original 50-year agreement. The doubts in the previous court's judgment should be gradually clarified." In response to the dispute between China and foreign Red Bull that has lasted for several years, Zhu Danpeng, a commentator of the China Food industry who has been paying attention to this matter for a long time, told Hu that this is also a responsible attitude towards the 27-year achievements of China Red Bull.
