[Epoch Times December 31, 2021](Epoch Times Reporter Yi Fan Comprehensive Report) The famous Chinese writer Zheng Yuanjie, known as the “Fairy Tale King”, recently announced that the “Fairy Tale King” magazine will cease publication from January 2022, because He must devote all his energy to defending his rights. He hopes to use this method to awaken more people and government departments’ awareness of intellectual property protection.
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Zheng Yuanjie will be 67 years old in the new year. In 1981, he created Pipiru, a naughty, miserable, brave and clever fairy tale character; in 1982, he created Shuke the mouse driving a helicopter; and in 1985, he founded the magazine “Fairy Tale King”. Later, he created Pipiru’s sister Lucissi, the mouse Beta who drives the tank, and the big bad wolf Rock.
Zheng Yuanjie is the only author of the “Fairy Tale King” magazine. He stated that he writes every day, without interruption in 36 years. According to Wikipedia, Zheng Yuanjie is the world record holder for the longest monthly publication of fairy tales. These vivid images in his writings have remained in the hearts of generations of Chinese teenagers.
On the evening of December 15th, Zheng Yuanjie announced on social media Weibo that the publication of “Fairy Tale King”, which was launched in 1985, would cease publication in January 2022. At the same time, “A Letter to Three Trademarks” was attached and included in the letter. Explained the reasons for the suspension.
The letter stated that his Pipiru was registered as a trademark for selling pig skin meat, while the fairy tale king and Shu Ke were used to sell children’s clothing and underwear, respectively. For these three trademarks, he had not succeeded in defending rights for 32 years, so he had to suspend writing and devote all his energy to rights protection.
Zheng Yuanjie said that the protection of intellectual property rights is of utmost importance, and China’s protection of intellectual property rights in the field of trademarks “has much room for improvement”. For this, he said sorry to millions of readers and friends, and hoped that the readers would cheer for him.
This is not the first time Zheng Yuanjie has defended rights. Over the years, from fighting pirated books to fighting copyright lawsuits to protecting trademark rights, he has actually been on the road to protecting rights. In the past 20 years, Zheng Yuanjie has successfully defended rights 16 times. According to his statistics, each successful rights protection takes an average of 6 years and costs about 90,000 yuan (US$14,000).
Why is it so difficult to defend rights? The official media “Economic Daily” stated that intellectual property rights are exceptionally professional and complex. China’s trademarks are divided into 45 categories, and different categories do not interfere with each other. For example, after registering a trademark in the journal category, others can also register the trademark of the same name in the clothing category. If you register in all categories, it will be expensive and troublesome to operate. Even if they are all registered, trademarks that have not been used for three years may be revoked. Therefore, many rights defenders are in a dilemma. Few companies or individuals can conduct business in 45 areas.
It is understood that the three trademarks mentioned in Zheng Yuanjie’s letter, “Pipilu” were registered as trademarks for dried meat products, and “Fairy Tale King” and “Shu Ke” were registered as clothing trademarks by others, but Zheng Yuanjie himself did not Register trademarks in these two categories.
In addition, according to the trademark law formulated by the Chinese Communist government, the statutory time limit for invalidation of a trademark is five years. When Zheng Yuanjie filed the application, the defendant’s trademark registration had exceeded the five-year period. Therefore, Zheng Yuanjie had to invoke other clauses.
In this regard, Zheng Yuanjie’s lawyer Wang Xiaoyan in many rights protection cases believes that according to the Trademark Law and related judicial interpretations, works and character names with high reputation such as Pipiru, Fairy Tale King, and Shu Ke shall not be used as trademarks on goods. , This can easily lead the public to mistakenly believe that it is licensed by the right holder or has a specific connection with the right holder.
If a trademark is preemptively registered by others, rights protection requires a series of administrative and judicial procedures. According to Shanghai’s official media “China Business News” quoted a professional explanation: when conducting trademark rights protection, you must first file an objection to the Trademark Office and apply for invalidation of the registered trademark; if you disagree with the ruling of the Trademark Office, you have the right to bring trademark administration to the court Litigation; if you disagree with the judgment of the first instance, you have the right to appeal to the higher court.
Such as the above-mentioned “Pipiru” trademark dispute, in March 2020, the Trademark Review and Adjudication Agency initially ruled that the merchants of pig skin meat can continue to use the “Pipiru” trademark. Zheng Yuanjie sued the trademark review agency to the Beijing Intellectual Property Court for this. On November 18 this year, the Beijing Intellectual Property Court ruled that Zheng Yuanjie won the case. However, Zheng Yuanjie said that the other party is now filing an appeal and it is estimated that it will take about three years to completely end the dispute.
In addition to the above three trademark disputes, Zheng Yuanjie mentioned in the letter that he still has to face 672 trademark infringement disputes. He told “China Business News”: “If I complete all trademark rights protection according to the current procedures, it should take 335 years.” This means that a prolific writer who is loved by readers will probably only be able to defend his rights for the rest of his life. Spent in.
Editor in charge: Lian Shuhua#
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