Just like Rainbow Laoji and Jiaduobao in those days, the trademark war hurt the vitality of enterprises and lost their market share. Today's functional beverage market is no longer dominated by Red Bull. With the entry of special beverages from Le Hu, Zhongwo and Dong Peng, the functional beverage market has been divided.
From honeymoon to lawsuit
According to public information, Xu Shubiao, who died on 20 12, founded Tencel Medicine selling antibiotics on 1956, and later turned to the research and development of energy supplements as the center, and invented a beverage made of caffeine, sugar, amino acids and taurine on 1975, namely Thai Red Bull.
From 65438 to 0984, Yan Bin founded Hua Bin Group in Thailand. 199565438+In February, Hua Bin Group, Thailand Red Bull and Thailand Tencel Group jointly established China Red Bull in China, and they have the right to operate the trademark "Red Bull" in China.
1998, the two parties signed a new joint venture contract with another shareholder, in which Tencent Medicine provided technical support for China Red Bull in terms of production technology and product formula, and Hua Bin Group took the lead in product production and operation.
In 20 12, Xu shubiao died. Since then, there have been cracks in the cooperation between Tencent Medicine and Hua Bin Group. In the following years, Tencent accused Hua Bin Group of secretly transferring business and profits.
On 20 16 10, Tencent announced that the trademark license contract of Red Bull had expired and would not be renewed. However, Hua Bin Group continues to lead the production and sales of Red Bull products. In this regard, Tencent Medicine chose to go to court, and the ownership of the right to use the "Red Bull Series Trademark" became the focus of debate between the two sides.
Whether the "Red Bull Series Trademark" can continue to be legally used means whether China Red Bull can continue to sell red bull beverage products in the China market. In order to obtain the right to use the trademark, China Red Bull put forward a number of claims, such as being the actual user of the trademark involved, making a significant contribution to promoting the goodwill of the trademark, and should enjoy the trademark right.
After years of litigation by both parties, on 20 19 165438125, the Beijing Higher People's Court made a judgment of first instance, rejecting China Red Bull's request to the court to confirm its legitimate rights and interests to the owner of 17 "Red Bull Series Trademark". China Red Bull subsequently appealed to the Supreme People's Court to cancel the first-instance judgment.
Finally confirmed, the dust settled.
On June 5438+1October 10, 2020, the dispute over the ownership of trademark rights between China Red Bull and Tencel Medicine was heard in the Fourth Court of the Supreme People's Court, with 300,000 people watching the trial.
China Red Bull appealed that the court of first instance failed to examine the established facts, and many basic facts were unclear, so it demanded that the judgment of first instance be revoked and sent back for retrial. China Red Bull also made it clear that its claim is to confirm the legitimate rights and interests of relevant trademark owners, not trademark ownership.
The appellee Tiansi Medicine replied that the relevant judgment of the court of first instance complied with legal procedures, and Tiansi Medicine held clear, independent and complete ownership of the Red Bull series trademarks. The relevant clauses in the Joint Venture Contract 1995 signed by Tencel Pharmaceutical and other shareholders on June 5438+0995+065438+ 10 mean that Tencel of Thailand, as the trademark owner, provides the trademark license to Red Bull Beverage Company, which is by no means the transfer of the trademark ownership of Red Bull.
It is understood that the above-mentioned "1995 joint venture contract" refers to1995165438+10/0, "China Shenzhen Zhonghao (Group) Co., Ltd., China Food Industry Corporation, Red Bull Energy. It is agreed that * * * will jointly contribute to the establishment of China Red Bull, in which Tencel Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. is agreed to "provide the product formula, process technology, trademark and subsequent improvement technology of Red Bull Beverage Company" and "the trademark of Red Bull Beverage Company's products is part of the assets of Red Bull Beverage Company".
According to the judgment of Beijing Higher People's Court No.2019165438, Red Bull Energy Beverage Co., Ltd. (China Red Bull) is the plaintiff. Please ask the court to confirm the charges against 878072, 878073, 1289559, 1264582, 5608276, 12 19609, 5035427, 969643,/kloc. Registered trademarks 5035426, 3478098, 24 14433 1,1227115, 5033257, 592693, 593. China Red Bull requests to confirm that the above-mentioned Red Bull series trademarks are the exclusive property of Red Bull Vitamins. If this cannot be confirmed, Red Bull Vitamins and Tencel Pharmaceuticals are jointly owned. 2019165438+125 October, the Beijing Higher People's Court made a first-instance judgment on the case and rejected all the claims of China Red Bull.
After the final review, this case was selected into the top ten cases of judicial protection of intellectual property rights in 2020 published by the Supreme People's Court on 20021World Intellectual Property Day and the top ten cases of judicial protection of intellectual property rights in Beijing courts.
On 2021May 12, Beijing Chaoyang District People's Court served a civil ruling on both parties. From now on, Hualian Supermarket will stop selling "Red Bull Vitamin Functional Beverage" products with "Red Bull Series Trademark" produced by China Red Bull, and the ruling will be implemented immediately.
Three-headed red bull, don't be silly, you're confused.
In the process of tug-of-war, another beneficiary of Red Bull Beverage, Austrian Red Bull, gradually appeared.
According to public information, in 1984, Austrian Matthias and Xu Shubiao founded the Austrian Red Bull Company, each holding 49% of the company's shares, and the remaining 2% belongs to Xu Shubiao's eldest son Xu Shuen (currently the chairman of Thailand Red Bull Beverage Group). The wholly-owned subsidiary of Austrian Red Bull entered China as early as 20 14. It is not difficult to see that the trademark rights of Red Bull are very complicated. As early as the 1980s, "two identical monkey kings" appeared, but the relevant parties did not pay enough attention to them. There have been hidden dangers of trademark disputes for so many years.
2065438+On February 24th, 2009, 65438+2009, Austrian Red Bull held a press conference on signing Gu Ailing, which was the first high-profile promotion activity of Austrian Red Bull since it entered the China market in 2065438+2004. The insiders believe that Austrian Red Bull kept a low profile when it entered the China market due to the trademark dispute between Red Bull Vitamins controlled by Hua Bin Group and Red Bull brand owner Tencent Medicine in China market.
In fact, before 20 14 entered the China market, Austrian Red Bull had set up a working group in China and applied for the "Police Mobile Force" logo of health products. At present, Austrian Red Bull is sold offline in cities such as Beishangguangshen, Nanjing and Jinan, and the price is about 15 yuan, all of which are imported products, mainly through the dealer model. Online, Austrian Red Bull has opened its own flagship stores in Tmall and JD.COM.
It is understood that in 1987, Austrian Red Bull has been put on the market. In 20 18, Austrian Red Bull sold 7 billion cans worldwide, covering Asia, Europe, Africa and America. Matschitz has already become the richest man in Austria by relying on Red Bull.
Behind the protracted trademark lawsuit of Red Bull is a huge "cake" in China's functional beverage market.
China Red Bull has always been the "cash cow" of Hua Bin Group. 65438+At the end of February, 2020, Hua Bin Group announced that the sales revenue of its five brands, namely Red Bull Vitamin Functional Beverage, Horse Energy Vitamin Beverage, Fusi Natural Mineral Water, Vitaco Natural Coconut Juice and Fruit Times Shuang Children Juice, reached 242065438+ billion yuan. Among them, red bull beverage sales revenue exceeded 22.8 billion yuan. Some insiders believe that once the Red Bull series trademarks are not allowed to be used, China Red Bull and Hua Bin Group will suffer huge losses.
It is reported that Red Bull beverage occupies nearly 60% of the functional beverage market in China. If it is banned, the domestic functional beverage market structure will face great changes.
Hua Bin Group is ready for this. In the past few years, Hua Bin Group has been making new market attempts, trying to get rid of the situation of relying too much on a single product. For example, the company vigorously promotes another functional beverage-"War Horse" in an attempt to expand new profit points, but judging from the current market performance, new products are far from replacing Red Bull products in the short term.
As the dual rivals of the court and the market, Tencent Medicine is also pushing Hua Bin Group in the market layout. On June 20 19, Tencel Pharmaceutical launched Red Bull Anakin Beverage in conjunction with new partners in China market, and announced the introduction of imported Red Bull into China market on February 20 19.
2002/KLOC-At the beginning of October/July, the CEO of Tencent Group in Thailand sent a letter to Chen Changzhi, Vice Chairman of the 11th and 12th the National People's Congress Standing Committee (NPCSC), former Chairman of the Central Committee of the Democratic National Construction Association and Chairman of Siyuan Project. Xu said in the letter that with the rapid development of China's economy and the increasing demand of consumers, Tencel Group of Thailand is full of confidence in the future of China and will continue to adhere to the purpose of "basing itself on China and giving back to China". First of all, it will continue to expand its investment in China, actively respond to the relevant call of the China government, steadily push forward the previously announced investment plan in China for the next three years, deepen its strategic relationship with China partners, enhance its marketing and R&D capabilities, expand its new production base, and provide better services for China. Second, we will continue to help charities, and around the rural revitalization strategy proposed by the state, we will carry out public welfare projects such as education assistance, rural development, disaster relief and ecological protection in economically underdeveloped areas in the next three years with Siyuan Project.
The dispute over the trademark ownership of Red Bull has ended, and the snipe and clam compete for the benefit of the fisherman. The definition of intangible assets such as trademarks is not clear, which brings great uncertainty risk to enterprise management. It is said that all gold diggers want to seize the battle of Red Bull and make efforts in the functional beverage market. However, whether the "two cows" are reconciled or not, the wealth map of functional drinks may be rewritten.