Internet celebrity coffee shops filled with "Ultraman" were claimed for 1 million yuan!

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Recently, Red Star News reported that an online celebrity coffee shop in Jiangsu Province has been sued and claimed millions of dollars on suspicion of infringing Altman.

It is reported that the coffee shop, located in Suzhou, Jiangsu Province, is full of "Altman" elements, which has attracted many fans of special TV series to visit the store and sign in. From the feedback of patronized customers, the store takes the theme song "Miracle Reproduction" of the "Diga Altman" special as the background music, and is decorated with "Altman" elements everywhere: theme hands, cards, picture albums, posters and so on.

Here, fans can not only enjoy all kinds of Altman surroundings in the store's collection, but also taste drinks and sweets named after Altman elements, and buy some refrigerator stickers, cards and other periphery. For fans, this is a paradise, whether they are children who have just come into contact with Altman or veteran fans who have been chasing the show for many years. As soon as I walked into this "Altman Mini Museum", I couldn't walk or look away.

Recently, however, the coffee shop was sued by the licensee of the intellectual property rights of the Altman series of art images and elements to stop copyright infringement and unfair competition, and to compensate for reasonable expenses and economic losses of 1 million yuan.

The local court found that the "Altman" registered trademark is well-known in animation, toys and other fields, lasts for a long time, has extensive influence in the market, and has been recognized as a well-known trademark by effective judgment. According to a platform, the defendant coffee shop opened in 2022. Because of its superior location, large passenger flow and a wide range of consumers, it has more than 3000 collections on third-party platforms alone.

However, it is understood that the defendant coffee shop did not obtain the authorization of the author when using the "Altman" element, and after receiving the summons for this case served by the court, the coffee shop continued to operate, even on the day of the trial. When the judge entered the coffee shop Mini Program, he found that the name of the coffee shop had not changed, which still included the word "Altman". The store stopped operating Mini Program only after the trial.

The plaintiff, as the right holder, said that the license outsider opened a "Altman" theme store with a term of 41 days and a fee of 150000 yuan. in addition, the right holder was required to charge a royalty of 10 per cent of the total retail sales of restaurants. However, the defendant's coffee shop did not pay the relevant fees.

During the trial, the defense pleaded that the store could hardly actually operate after 2022 and was in a state of heavy losses, but that there were more than 300 consumer reviews in 2022 or at least 2024.

The court held that without the permission of the right holder, the defendant made the image of Altman into a large background wall in the physical store, placed around a large number of Altman and monsters, and printed Altman's head on the packing cup, and so on, infringing upon the plaintiff's right of exhibition, reproduction, distribution and information network dissemination.

At the same time, special drama theme songs are played in the store as background music, and its sales products, Mini Program, etc., all have Altman elements, which can easily make consumers mistakenly think that the products they sell are related to Altman, or even think that they are authorized to open theme stores, with the intention of clinging to goodwill, disturbing the order of market competition and forming unfair competition.

Although the defendant coffee shop has stopped the infringement, it should still compensate the plaintiff for economic losses and reasonable expenses paid to stop the infringement. Therefore, the court ordered the defendant coffee shop to pay the plaintiff economic losses and reasonable expenses of 400000 yuan according to law.

Picture from: red Star News, Little Red Book

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