Recently, the Beijing Internet Court made a first-instance judgment in the case of TOGO sharing cars using the image copyright of "Peppa Pig" and determined that the defendant Beijing Tuge Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Tuge Company) infringed the two plaintiffs' right of reproduction and information network transmission. The defendant should immediately stop the infringement and compensate for economic losses and reasonable expenses totaling RMB 500,000.
It is reported that the two plaintiffs, Entertainment One UK Limited (hereinafter referred to as Entertainment One) and Astley Baker Davies Ltd (hereinafter referred to as Asbada) are the series of films "Peppa Pig" and also the copyright owner. The art works of "Peppa Pig, George Pig, Daddy Pig, Mommy Pig" involved are very popular after they are put on the market, and they have extremely high reputation and commercial value.
The two plaintiffs said that during the 2018 (15th) Beijing International Automobile Exhibition Antiques, Tuge Company had posted the image of "Peppa Pig" on the TOGO shared vehicle operated by the defendant, and sold it as a core selling point for commercial publicity. At the same time, related activities are simultaneously disseminated on its WeChat official account, Sina Weibo and major media. The defendant’s above actions violated the two plaintiffs’ right of reproduction and information network dissemination of the works involved, so they sued Tuge to the court, requiring them to stop compensation and compensate for economic losses and reasonable expenses totaling RMB 500,000.
The defendant Tuge Company argued that they had deleted the pictures of the art works involved in the WeChat and Weibo public accounts, and had stopped using the car stickers during the auto show. They didn’t get much profit from the used of the works, and the influence scope of the use of the works involved in the case was extremely limited at the same time, so the total amount of compensation requested by the two plaintiffs was too high.
According to the trial of the Beijing Internet court, the above-mentioned acts of the defendant Tuge Company infringed the two plaintiffs’ rights of reproduction and information network dissemination. In this case, the defendant used "Peppa Pig" and its art works. Its popularity and influence to promote its shared car service is a kind of advertising, the use of endorsement. The defendant was cautioned against the issue of licensing and license fees with the two plaintiffs. In order to prevent and warn infringement, the amount of damages in infringement cases should not be lower than the normal license fees.
Accordingly, the Beijing Internet Court made the first-instance judgment. As of the time of publication, the case was still under appeal.