The Appearance Of Shrimps And Other Explosive Bags Is Being Snatch By Chinese Mystery People In The US.

Intellectual property disputes have become one of the most difficult problems in the fashion industry.

According to the relevant legal documents cited by The Fashion Law, a Chinese Guangdong woman named Minling Lin has obtained two patent handbags from the UPSTO of the United States Patent and Trademark Office. However, the design manuscript of the two handbags is very similar to the two logo handbags of Instagram designer Cult Cult Gaia and Shrimps over the past year, which sparked speculation about the intention of the patent application.

Over the past year, Cult Gaia's The Ark bamboo basket handbag and Shrimps's Antonia pearl handbag have become the most popular designer brand handbags in social media, frequently appearing in fashion bloggers and street filming in Europe and America. Through the two spread of Chinese fashion media and fashion bloggers, these handbags have high recognition in China and have a certain market potential.

It is reported that the patent application for appearance will take more than one year through the United States Patent and Trademark Office. But as early as January 2018, Minling Lin submitted a patent application for the design of bamboo basket. In September of the same year, she put forward a patent application for pearl handbag.

In March 2019, Minling Lin successfully obtained the patent appearance of bamboo basket and had the right to legally investigate patent infringement. This month, the United States Patent and Trademark Office awarded Minling a patent for the design of Pearl handbags.

The patent application submitted by Minling Lin is attached to the picture. The design of the semicircle profile and handle of the bamboo basket is exactly the same as that of Cult Gaia, which was first inspired by the ancient Japanese craft. The square shape of the Pearl handbag, grid beads, flat bottoms and two top handles are almost identical with the products launched by the British designer brand Shrimps five years ago.

The left side is Minling Lin, a patent sketch to the US patent and Trademark Office, the right side is Cult Gaia basket bag and Shrimps pearl bag.

However, the legal profession has also pointed out that because of the uniqueness of the patent of Minling Lin, and the fact that the two designer brands have gained considerable market recognition, Minling Lin will not actually gain the upper hand in its patent infringement litigation that may be initiated. On the contrary, if the court or the United States Patent and Trademark Office's patent trial is challenged, her related patents may be deemed invalid. So far, she has not yet filed a tort suit based on these two patents.

But this does not mean that Minling Lin can not benefit from the appearance of patents. Sarah Burstein, a professor at University of Oklahoma law school specializing in intellectual property rights, told The Fashion Law that Minling Lin may intend to make use of the patent trial and litigation process, which is very expensive for plaintiffs and defendants, and to benefit from fast solutions such as private negotiation, such as charging a certain fee to the defendant to exempt formal legal proceedings.

In the early years in China, some local enterprises used the first come first served trademark system to seize the brand names and labels of others to get ransom and sell them to the highest bidder. However, in the latest revision of the trademark law, the principle of "using first" and the application for trademark registration within five years of registration are also more and more avoided.

At the end of last year, the trademark of Italy Chao Supreme Italia, which was announced to enter the Chinese market, has been revoked by the Trademark Office of China. All the products displayed in the Chinese stores are not allowed to be sold in law. Although Supreme has no registered documents in China at present, it is a milestone victory for the counterfeiting operation of genuine Supreme from New York, the United States. According to the fashion business bulletin, Supreme Italia opened its first store in March at 839 Huaihai Road, Shanghai, and the brand name "Supreme luxury Italy brand".

Nevertheless, it is extremely rare to submit a patent application in the form of personal Minling Lin, which is different from those in the past. This also makes people still unable to understand the motives of Minling Lin. But the industry speculated that Minling Lin will soon take action again.

Some analysts believe that Minling Lin is clearly a lucky person in dealing with the United States Patent and Trademark Office. Because according to past experience, because the patent law has strict requirements for novelty, the United States Patent and Trademark Office should not pass the patent application when the application is obviously similar to other existing inventions.

The United States Patent and Trademark Office (LADYMAX) is known for its strict reputation. The WeChat patent No. LADYMAX has reported on the patent application of the WeChat. The patent application for the logo red zipper is not smooth. In July 2018, Off-White applied the trademark logo red zipper's trademark application to the United States Patent and Trademark Office for trial, but was initially rejected by the agency in December. At present, the brand is still working to apply for the registration of "red zipper" for trademark, trousers, headwear and footwear.

According to the United States Patent and Trademark Office, the definition of red zipper trademark is full of potential problems. Zipper lace itself is functional, while functional products can not be used as trademark protection. However, the elements of Off-White's patent application are red zippers. The brand claims that red is part of the trademark, but people believe that this element in essence is not unique.

The patent of net red handbag is being astonished, and it also sounded the alarm for the intellectual property consciousness of the industry. In fact, the intellectual property rights maintenance of these designer brands in Taobao ecosystem in China is even more serious.

How did Instagram affect Taobao's explosion? In the article, the fashion blogger and Taobao shopkeeper Wang observed that a group of European and American niche brands began to rise on Taobao, and Shrimps and Cult Gaia were among the brands. Most of these brands are newly established designer brands, and have not yet officially entered the Chinese market. There are no stores under the line, nor have they entered Taobao, Tmall, Jingdong, and other mainstream domestic e-commerce platforms. The Swedish niche brand Toteme, for example, has less than 300 thousand fans on Instagram.

European and American niche brands were discovered by fashion blogger KOL on Instagram. Then KOL spread to other platforms, the attention was affected, merchants sniffed business opportunities, and then appeared on Taobao, and Taobao pushed the algorithm to potential customers according to the algorithm. In this way, mutual influence will form a tight industrial chain.

When consumers browse, search, collect and purchase these brands on Taobao, Taobao will be labeled as "European and American minority", and the algorithm will recommend more products of the same type. Most of them are not buying on behalf of these brands, but hundreds of thousands of Taobao businesses buy the original version, and then fine-tuning them to the popular version of the Chinese version, making copies of the homemade imitation version, which is barely equivalent to the sale after the two creation.

The real estate purchase threshold is high, and it needs to be purchased through the sea or on behalf of the official website. It restricts the purchase of the domestic consumers from the formal channels, so that the imitation of Taobao can take advantage of it. In addition, these designer brands have a common feature, that is, to eliminate the brand value, the price of the product itself is not high. If the brand itself is well-designed, quality is excellent, customized fabrics, three-dimensional cutting, imitation costs will be higher, profits will be few. The careful Taobao seller takes a good look at the net red brand. There are many Instagram bloggers in the endless stream of beautiful maps, but the clothes themselves are generally designed, from styles to workmanship, and are easily copied.

As a result, Shrimps and Cult Gaia face not only the front-end bursting of patent handbags, but also the spread of counterfeit goods at the end of mass consumption, which is obviously more difficult to control and has the greatest risk of diluting brand value. Such risks are a major destabilizing factor for brand designers.

Last month, Liu Feng, director of the intellectual property rights research committee of the Shanghai Lawyers Association, jointly sponsored by the Shanghai Business Council and the market supervision and Management Bureau, jointly sponsored by the Shanghai press group and the Oriental International Group, said that there are many ways to protect the brand, including design patents, copyright and trademark rights. However, the protection is different from each other. The protection of the patent is aesthetic, design, fabric and so on. Copyright protection is the blueprint for the design, and the protection of the trademark is the future operation. At the different stages, Liu Feng needs to choose different methods to protect.

More and more designers around the world have realized that the problem of intellectual property which has been neglected in the past due to lack of funds and energy has moved from the edge to the center of public issues. At the same time, maintaining intellectual property rights has become an extremely complex undertaking. Even the German sports giant Adidas, who has been very tough on intellectual property protection, has recently suffered losses.

Last week, the European Union second high court just announced that Adidas's "three bars" sign was invalid as a trademark. It also supported the decision of the European Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) to cancel the trademark in 2016, on the ground that the three bar lacks uniqueness.

The Court pointed out that the logo is not a pattern symbol consisting of a series of regular repetitive elements, but a common symbol. The three stripe logo was first registered on football boots by Adidas founder Adi Dassler in August 18, 1949. Later, the brand was registered in 2014, but the court now says it is not enough to prove that the logo was first invented by Adidas.

Mark Caddle, the trademark attorney of the European intellectual property company, woods & log, said that Adidas failed to provide enough evidence that when consumers saw three stripes on clothing, footwear or headwear, they would immediately associate such products with Adidas.

Just as the two exploding handbags are of strategic importance to the brand of the original designer, the three bar has a strategic position for Adidas. Earlier, a number of research institutes pointed out that it is precisely the sign that has three bars. The recognition cost of Adidas is far lower than the recognition cost of competitor Nike, and the three bar has great strategic value for Adidas.

Compared with the fashion industry, the more complex dress appearance patent protection and plagiarism dispute, with the trademark law to protect the saliency characteristics of clothing is the most basic and relatively reliable way of safeguarding rights, it can protect the brand's most basic name and brand logo. However, the difficulty of applying for trademark is to prove the uniqueness of brand iconic elements, especially the pattern of "three bars", which is made up of common graphics. The luxury shoe brand Christian Louboutin needs to prove to the court the uniqueness of the red shoe.

After Christian Louboutin filed a lawsuit against a number of courts in Europe over the past year, the European Union Supreme Court announced in June this year that trademark trademark red and shoe shapes jointly used by the EU were protected by EU law to a certain extent. It is noteworthy that the trademark red of Christian Louboutin is not completely protected by the law, because the brand can not prove the specificity of the color, and can only consider the shape of red and shoes comprehensively, which has great limitations.

In the flood of social media information, brand iconic elements and explosive products are the most important brand assets. Whether luxury brand or designer brand, there is no turning back in raising awareness of intellectual property rights and increasing investment in safeguarding rights.