The Red Bull dispute escalated again: the court ruled that the sale of Tencel Red Bull was prohibited and Reignwood Red Bull claimed to have lost more than 2 billion of production value_ 东方 Fortune.com



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Original caption: Red Bull dispute escalated – court ruled Tencel Red Bull ban was lifted again, and Reignwood Red Bull claimed to have lost more than 2 billion of production value

Although it has taken more than five years,shareholderThis dispute continues to star in new dramas. At this time, due to the two civil judgments of the Zaozhuang Court, the dispute between the two parties has once again escalated.

The “Daily Business News” reporter noted that due to the dispute, the two sides haveCommercial brandAuthorizationDue to the divergence of terms, the Intermediate People’s Court of Zaozhuang City, Shandong Province (hereinafter Zaozhuang Intermediate Court) recently accepted Red Bull Vitamin Beverage Limitedthe company(Hereinafter referred to asjoint projectThe company or Reignwood Red Bull) requested preservation, but it was lifted shortly after the ruling was published.

The Zaozhuang Intermediate Court first ruled on October 29 that Red Bull’s trademark seriespropertyFang Thai Tencel Healthcare Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Tencel Group), stops producing and selling Red Bull Beverages in China and cannot continue.productHalf a month later, the court also lifted the previous ban on sales for related reasons, such as “the state of emergency has been lifted.”

The result of the Zaozhuang Intermediate Court rulingCounterThe reasons and interpretations of the lawsuit were different, and the commercial disputes over Red Bull shareholders also fell on Rashomon again. Although the dispute remains fruitless, but on Tencel Red BullmarketUnder the offense, Reignwood Red Bull had to face the loss of financial interests.

As for when this dispute of the century will have a clear end, we still have to await the verdict of the Second International Commercial Court of the Supreme People’s Court (hereinafter the International Commercial Court).

The court ruled that there was a “reversal”, and the two parties explained to each other.

On November 16, a statement by Reignwood Red Bull triggered the escalation of the dispute. After the two parties had “approved” several times, the Zaozhuang Intermediate Court issued a ruling on the suspension of products from the Tencel Group. The discarded event is gradually restored.

The journalist learned that, as the owner of the Red Bull series of trademarks, Tencel Group believes that it has the exclusive rights to Reignwood Red Bull.Trademark authorizationIt is only 20 years old and expires in 2016. However, Reignwood Red Bull insists that the cooperation between the two parties is based on a “50-year agreement” and that it can still exclusively operate Red Bull beverages in the Chinese market.

In addition to legal differences regarding authorization, since June 2019, TENCEL Group has launched two new Red Bull products (hereinafter collectively referred to as TENCEL Red Bull) in China prominently, which have openly challenged Reignwood Red Bull. As a result, the battlefield for both parties has also expanded from litigation to the market level.

Beijing OneConvenience storeRed Bull Functional Vitamin Drink (Reignwood Red Bull)

In October this year, Reignwood Red Bull officially filed a lawsuit with the Zaozhuang Intermediate Court and filed a behavior preservation request.borrowThis is to stop Tencel Group’s current operation in China. According to the “Civil Judgment” (hereinafter Judgment 1) issued by the Zaozhuang Intermediate Court on October 29, Reignwood Red Bull’s appeal was immediately supported by the court: Tencel Group should stop immediately and not continue production in China. Sales (including self-production, sales, or licensing of other third parties to produce and sell Tencel Red Bull beverage products).

Reignwood Red Bull interprets this and stated that the Zaozhuang Intermediate Court has determined that it has the exclusive right to produce and sell Red Bull drinks in China for 50 years. However, according to declaration documents released by both parties at a later stage, just half a month after the ruling was issued, it was canceled by the Zaozhuang Court with a new “civil ruling” (ruling 2). As for the specific reasons for its cancellation, the reporter called the Zaozhuang Intermediate Court several times on November 20, but the call was not connected.

Based on the background mentioned above, Reignwood Red Bull and Tencel Group once again fell into a war of words with each other. Follow Reignwood Red BullattorneyAccording to Fang, the reason why the ruling was lifted was that the state of “emergency” on which it was based had been lifted and conservation measures continued to prohibit the production and sale of the Tencel Group which has lost its urgency and need. Even if the Zaozhuang Intermediate People’s Court lifted the first ruling, the court did not change its determination of the exclusive right to produce and sell Tencel Red Bull for 50 years.

The Tencel Group told reporters that before the ruling was lifted,Market surveillanceThe administrative department has already revoked the administrative document against the Tencel Group, so there is no real situation that the state of “emergency” claimed by the other party has been lifted.

Tencel Group also added that Reignwood Red Bull continues to produce and sell Red Bull beverages without authorization. With Tencel Group’s rights protection, Reignwood products are suspected ofTrademark infringementIn many parts of the countryMarket monitoringThe board was removed.

Knowledge from China University of Political Science and LawpropertyLi Junhui, special investigator at the Research Center, said that based on existing information, Reignwood Red Bull is already trying to contact the market supervision departments of Guangdong, Yunnan, Xinjiang and other provinces to introduce administrative supervision. for possible infractions against them or the relationship with Tencel Group. Dispute relief. However, after the intervention of the administrative department, the court tended to believe that the real need to continue to enforce the ban was no longer sufficient.

Reignwood Red Bull claims to lose more than 2 billionindustryoutput value

If the court ruling document is not made public, the outside world will not be able to understand the whole story. Faced with multiple inquiries from “Daily Business News” reporters, both Reignwood Red Bull and Tencel Group were unwilling to produce the aforementioned ruling.

It is worth noting that after the ruling was issued, subsequent Tencel Red Bull dealers in many places were affected to some extent, and Tencel Red Bull products were also removed from the shelves.

According to regulatory documents received by various Guangdong and Hunan distributors from the local market supervision and management department, in early November, several Tencel Red Bull distributors were suspected of operating other companies that could lead people to misunderstand others.ProductOr there is a specific association with other people’s confusion, “etc., they were required to” order to stop illegal activities “” to stop selling Tencel Red Bull. “But just days later, this order correction notice was revoked.

Source of market surveillance documents issued by a given location in Hunan Province: Photo courtesy of respondents

Source of the image of the notice of the rectification documents revoked in a certain place: Photo courtesy of the interviewee

A Guangdong Tencel Red Bull distributor said supervisors did not explain much when they came and that the supermarket had cooperated to recall the products. But a few days later, he was notified that he could resume selling Tencel Red Bull drinks. He also said that he had never received the attention of regulators before for selling Tencel Red Bull.

Compared to Tencel Red Bull, Reignwood Red Bull is even more affected by the market in the situation of trademark licensing and joint venture disputes. Reignwood Red Bull’s lawyer, Chen Ruojian, stated in a statement that in 2014, Tencel Group stopped supplying flavors and fragrances to Reignwood Red Bull and sent a letter requesting Reignwood Red Bull to stop using the Red Bull trademark and immediately initiated more than a dozen legal proceedings and “” Illegal “wrote to the industry department. and Beijing trade to obstruct Reignwood Red Bull’s legal extension of its operational period, prompting Reignwood Red Bull to cease production from 2019workerunemployment, The loss of value of industrial production exceeds 2 billion yuan.

It should be noted that the loss of production value claimed by Reignwood Red Bull has not been confirmed, and its joint venture production base in Huairou, Beijing, has not fully closed.

It is not difficult to see that under the stalemate of several years of disputes, both Yan Bin and the Xu family behind the Tencel Group seemed anxious. On the other hand, because the main legal cases of the dispute between the two parties have been accepted by the International Commercial Court and entered the trial stage in 2019 according to the principle of “first instance and last instance”, but So far, there is no clear sentencing result in the related cases. Therefore, this tug of war of the Red Bull Century feud may continue.

Regarding the litigation of the Red Bull series of cases by other courts before the International Commercial Court ruling appeared, Li Junhui said that when the International Commercial Court has started the trial of the Red Bull case series, others courts may not accept it again if there are no new facts. Cases based on the same fact or dispute.

(Source: Daily Economic News)

(Responsible editor: DF407)

I solemnly declare: The purpose of this information is to spread more information, and it has nothing to do with this booth.

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