A series of Wolfoo brand products were copyrighted
On November 18, 2023, Sconnect continued to send documents to the Ministry of Information and Communications, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, the National Competition Commission, the Vietnam Digital Communications Association, and the Vietnam Journalists Association to report the latest developments related to the copyright dispute between the two cartoon characters Wolfoo and Peppa Pig, in which Sconnect and a business in the UK have been suing each other in the courts of Russia, the UK and Vietnam.
Sconnect said that the latest development in the copyright dispute between two famous cartoon characters Wolfoo (owned by Sconnect Vietnam) and Peppa Pig (owned by Entertaiment One UK - abbreviated as eOne or EO), in early November 2023, eOne struck the copyright for the sound "Hurray" (duration 0.1 seconds) used in the content of the 3D cartoon Wolfoo.
It is worth mentioning here that the 3D version of Wolfoo is a separate creative product, unrelated to the disputed images and sounds in Sconnect's 2D animated film Wolfoo.
This is not the first time eOne has copyrighted products unrelated to the copyright dispute between Wolfoo and Peppa Pig.
In late 2022, eOne filed a copyright claim against the Wolfoo Game computer program products on the App Store (although Wolfoo Game was not the subject of a copyright dispute in the eOne v. Sconnect case in the UK High Court).
After Sconnect submitted legal documents proving legal ownership of the Wolfoo Game computer program to the App Store's legal department, the platform did not accept eOne's complaint.
In the nearly two-year-long dispute, a Russian court heard the case and issued a verdict in July 2022, finding no conclusion that Wolfoo had infringed Peppa Pig's copyright.
Currently, the courts in the UK and Vietnam are in the process of accepting and not yet coming to trial, there has not been any court ruling declaring that Sconnect has violated and the images shown in the Wolfoo cartoon are considered to be copied from the Peppa Pig cartoon.
Notably, in the lawsuit filed in the UK court, eOne only sued 91 Wolfoo videos, but used this lawsuit to claim copyright, causing YouTube to remove 3,500 Wolfoo videos (most of which were unrelated to the lawsuit).
“eOne has abused its intellectual property rights to copyright thousands of Wolfoo videos that are not covered by the UK High Court lawsuit, resulting in huge damages to Sconnect, estimated to have caused us more than $10 million in damages due to the groundless removal of 3,500 videos,” the Sconnect representative added.
In the UK High Court case, eOne accused Sconnect of copyright infringement in 91 videos including: The Wolfoo character set is a copy of the Peppa Pig character set; Using Peppa Pig images in Wolfoo videos; Using audio copied from Peppa Pig in Wolfoo videos; Using the name “Peppa Pig” in Wolfoo video titles and Backgrounds copied from Peppa Pig.
Despite these allegations, eOne has so far failed to produce any evidence to identify which of its Peppa Pig works have been infringed, nor has it produced any evidence to prove eOne's ownership of the works during the litigation over the past several years, despite Sconnect's requests and complaints to the UK courts on this matter.
“The Wolfoo videos containing the elements that eOne alleged have also been removed by YouTube and are no longer available on the platform. Although no court has yet made a ruling, Sconnect has proactively reviewed and removed all disputed elements from newly produced Wolfoo videos since the dispute occurred to limit risks. However, eOne continues to copyright videos unrelated to the lawsuit in the UK,” the Sconnect representative emphasized.
Currently, the sounds that Sconnect is using in its Wolfoo animation videos have no connection to the sounds mentioned in the UK lawsuit.
Sconnect has full original recordings, contracts and payment documents for hiring young talents to record dialogue and sound for the Wolfoo animation.
Suppression in international trademark registration
During the litigation, eOne opposed all of Sconnect's international Wolfoo trademark applications.
In Russia, Wolfoo has been granted protection for the trademark “Wolfoo word.” As for the trademark “Wolfoo shape,” eOne filed an objection with the registration authority, however, since the lawsuit in Russia has ended, Sconnect has not filed any further objections in Russia.
It is a common procedure for parties to oppose a trademark application, so opposing a trademark in Russia does not mean losing ownership of the Wolfoo copyright, as detailed in the article “YouTube has removed more than 3,000 Wolfoo animated videos produced by Sconnect”.
In Europe, eOne opposed all Wolfoo trademark applications, but on July 28, 2023, the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) issued a first-instance decision rejecting eOne's argument against Sconnect's trademark registration.
In the past, eOne not only interrupted and stopped Sconnect's business activities in terms of copyright on YouTube, but also suppressed it in carrying out international trademark registration procedures.
Currently, the Wolfoo trademark has been successfully registered in Russia and Vietnam, and is awaiting appraisal in Europe and the US.
Regarding copyright registration, Wolfoo character set has registered copyright for script, character set, and art images in the US, Vietnam, and several other countries.
Sconnect performs copyright protection
During the 2 years of pursuing copyright infringement lawsuits, Sconnect has sent written reports to the Ministry of Information and Communications, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, the National Competition Commission, and the Vietnam Digital Communications Association to report and request competent authorities to support contacting and working with YouTube and Google to request this unit to stop the groundless removal of Sconnect's videos, when there has not been any judgment declaring that Wolfoo's content violates copyright.
Specifically, the Vietnam Digital Communications Association has twice sent documents to Google requesting that it objectively and carefully consider and stop accepting copyright requests for Wolfoo videos while the courts of various countries are handling the dispute.
The Department of Radio, Television and Electronic Information (Ministry of Information and Communications) and the Department of Copyright (Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism) have sent documents to Google and YouTube requesting that the cross-border platform carefully review the issues Sconnect raised in reports sent to relevant agencies.
At the same time, the Vietnamese government agency also requested YouTube to restore the Wolfoo channels and videos that had been deleted, locked, and blocked from posting new content until the court's decision.
After Vietnamese authorities spoke out, YouTube unlocked dozens of YouTube channels that had previously been blocked from uploading, however, more than 3,500 deleted Wolfoo videos have not been restored.
Sconnect regularly reports and updates documents related to the dispute to the authorities to grasp information and support resolution.
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