The case involving more than 300 million yuan of copyright infringement involving "Lego" was sentenced by the Third Intermediate People's Court of Shanghai.
On the morning of September 2, a reporter from The Paper learned from the trial that the Shanghai No. 3 Intermediate People's Court ruled that nine defendants had committed copyright infringement, among which the main culprit Li Moumou was sentenced to six years in prison and a fine of 90 million yuan, and the illegal gains were recovered.
The Third Branch of the Shanghai People's Procuratorate accused the defendants Li, Du, Yan, Yu, Wang A, Zhang, Wang B, Lu, and Li of the crime of copyright infringement.
After investigation, it was found that since 2015, the defendant Li Moumou instructed the defendant Du Moumou and others to purchase new Lego series toys, and began to copy Lego toys through disassembly and research. In January 2015, Li Moumou instructed Du Moumou to register the Lepin Toy Factory in his personal name (later changed to Fenlihao Toy Factory, cancelled in July 2016), and replicated the design, molding and production of Lego toys at Li Hao Toy Factory, packaging the finished product at Zhili Packaging Factory, and warehousing it at the Xiaoju Dome Toy Factory. Since 2016, during his time as Li's driver, the defendant Yan Moumou was instructed by Li Moumou to register the Longjun Toy Factory in Chenghai District, Shantou City as a manufacturer of Lepin toys to printed it on Lepin toys. He also assisted Li Moumou in conveying daily production instructions, supervising the speed up the completion of production progress, and forwarded the warehouse entry and exit situation sent by the defendant Li Mou to Li Mou to Li Mou. The defendant Zhang was instructed by Li Moumou to be responsible for the production and operation of Li Hao Toy Factory. According to the packaging design information, bill of materials, process flow, sales and shipment orders provided by the design and sales personnel, workers were organized to sort toy plastic parts at Li Hao Toy Factory, package them in Zhili Factory warehouse, and assemble and test each toy. After the finished toys are packaged, the defendant Li was arranged to ship the finished toys stored in the warehouse to the outside according to the sales order.
The defendant Wang Moujia helped Li Moumou make a list of materials for Lepin building blocks while serving as the development director of Lihao Toy Factory and the development creative director of Meizhi Company. During the time when the defendant Wang Mou B was the head of the e-commerce department of Meizhi Company, he helped Li Moumou sell Lepin toys imitating Lego through online platforms such as Taobao, AliExpress, and Alibaba.
The defendant Lu Moumou was the director of the Engineering Department of Lihao Toy Factory, he weighed the outer packaging and plastic parts of Lego toys according to Li Moumou's instructions and sent the data to Wang Moujia. He cleaned and sorted the genuine Lego toy plastic parts, picked out the special parts of Lego toys, and entrusted others to draw 3D pictures of the above special parts and opened the mold at the manufacturer designated by Li Moumou.
The defendant Yu Moumou was instructed by the defendant Li Moumou to design and apply for the "Lepin" trademark during his tenure as the manager of the packaging design department of Meizhi Company. As the head of the Lepin Toys Storage Department, the defendant Li is responsible for the management of finished toys shipped toys in Zhili Factory Warehouse and Xiaojudiao Warehouse, and shipped to the outside according to the sales shipment orders of Wang Mou B and others.
On April 23, 2019, the Shanghai Municipal Public Security Bureau seized 88 injection molds for copying Lego toys, 68 spare parts for assembling molds, 289,411 packaging boxes of various types of "Lepin" toys, 175,141 instructions for various types of "Lepin" toys, more than 50,000 sales and shipment orders with the words "Shantou Lepin Toy Co., Ltd.", and 603,875 "Lepin" toy products replicated by related computers, mobile phones, and 603,875 "Lepin" toy products for copying Lego series.
"Great Wall of China" assembled toys and other 663 products are art works created by LEGO A/S. Lego Company has produced and produced a series of assembled toys based on this work and sold them on the market. After being approved by the Copyright Appraisal Committee of the China Copyright Protection Center, Lepin's "Great Wall of China" toys and Lepin's "Great Wall of China" toys; Lepin's "PRIMITIVE TRIBE" toys and Lego's "THE FLINTSTONES" toys; Lepin's "FAIRY TALE" toys and Lego's "DISNEY PRINCESS" toys; Lepin's "TECHNICIAN" toys and Lego's "ALL Terrain Tow Truck" toys are basically the same, forming a copying relationship. The album of Lepin's "NINJAG Thunder Swordsman" is the same as the album of Lego's "NINJAGO Masters of Spinjitzu" and constitutes a copying relationship.
After judicial accounting appraisal, from September 11, 2017 to April 23, 2019, Li Moumou and others produced and sold 4,249,255 boxes of infringing products, involving 634 models, totaling 300,924,050.9 yuan. On April 23, 2019, 603,875 boxes of infringing products to be sold were seized at Zhili Factory and Xiaoju Dome Warehouse, involving 344 models, with a total amount of RMB 30,508,780.7.
After the defendant Du Moumou left the Lihao Factory in 2017, he began to engage in the distribution of Lepin Toys. He purchased the goods from Lipin Toy Factory and sold Lepin Toys in Taobao online stores to make a profit. After judicial accounting appraisal, the sales amount of Du Moumou sold Lego products in the Taobao online store he operated was RMB 6,215,989.43. During his time at Meizhi Company, the defendants Yu Moumou and Wang Mouyi sold Lepin toys to make profits by selling Lego's online stores they operated. After judicial accounting appraisal, from June 10, 2017 to August 27, 2017, the sales amount of Yu Moumou sold replicated Lego products in the Taobao store he operated was RMB 3,560.28; from May 28, 2017 to April 23, 2019, the sales amount of Wang Moubride sold replicated Lego products in the Taobao store he operated was RMB 11,747,427.79.
On April 22, 2019, the defendant Li Moumou was arrested at Shenzhen Airport. On the 23rd of the same month, the defendant Du Moumou was verbally summoned to the public security organs. The defendant Yu Moumou took the initiative to be arrested after receiving the phone call; the next day, the defendant Yan Moumou voluntarily surrendered. On May 12 of the same year, the defendant Wang A was arrested. On June 14, July 15, July 31 and August 5 of the same year, the defendants Wang B, Lu, Zhang and Li surrendered voluntarily. After being arrested, each defendant truthfully confessed the above-mentioned criminal facts.
Shanghai No. 3 Intermediate People's Court held that the defendant Li Moumou, together with Yan Moumou, Zhang Mou, Wang Mou B, Lu Moumou, Wang Mou A, Yu Moumou, Li Mou and others for the purpose of making profits, and without the permission of the copyright owner, copied and distributed art works that Lego Company enjoyed copyright, without the permission of the copyright owner. The amount of illegal operation reached more than 330 million yuan. As one of the distributors, the defendant Du Moumou issued art works that Lego Company enjoyed copyright without the permission of the copyright owner. The amount of illegal operation reached more than 6.21 million yuan. The circumstances are particularly serious. The actions of each defendant constituted the crime of copyright infringement and should be punished according to law. The charges of the public prosecution agency are clear and the evidence is indeed sufficient. The charges of prosecution are convicted and the court supports them.
On the morning of September 2, the Shanghai No. 3 Intermediate People's Court made the following judgment: the defendant Li Moumou was sentenced to six years in prison and a fine of RMB 90 million; the defendant Yan Moumou was sentenced to four years and six months in prison and a fine of RMB 800,000; the defendant Zhang Moumou was sentenced to four years and six months in prison and a fine of RMB 1.2 million; the defendant Wang Moubring was sentenced to three years and nine months in prison and a fine of RMB 4.5 million; the defendant Du Moumou committed the infringement of copyright infringement of copyright infringement of copyright infringement of copyright infringement of RMB 4.5 million; the defendant Du Moumou committed the infringement of copyright infringement of copyright infringement of copyright infringement of RMB 4.5 million; the defendant Du Moumou committed the infringement of copyright infringement of copyright infringement of RMB 4.5 million; The crime of copyright was sentenced to three years and six months in prison and a fine of RMB 2.5 million; the defendant Lu Moumou was sentenced to three years in prison and a fine of RMB 300,000 for copyright infringement; the defendant Wang Moujia was sentenced to three years in prison and a fine of RMB 300,000 for copyright infringement; the defendant Yu Moumou was sentenced to three years in prison and a fine of RMB 200,000 for copyright infringement; the defendant Li Moumou was sentenced to three years in prison and a fine of RMB 200,000 for copyright infringement; the defendant Li Moumou was sentenced to three years in prison and a fine of RMB 200,000 for copyright infringement; the defendant Li Moumou was sentenced to three years in prison and a fine of RMB 200,000 for copyright infringement. At the same time, the illegal gains of the above-mentioned defendants will be recovered, and the infringing goods seized in the case and their own property for crimes will be confiscated.
Source: Pengpai News
