Chinanews.com Chengdu, May 27th (Du Cheng) In recent years, the protection of intellectual property rights has formed an increasingly broad consensus in society.
However, a large local food company in Sichuan with annual sales of more than 300 million yuan has repeatedly encountered malicious counterfeiting of trademarks in recent years, and the trademarks of counterfeiters are only "a word difference", which makes authentic manufacturers and consumers miserable.
The counterfeit trademark Li Kui and Li Gui are only "a word difference"
"This is our company's authentic product. This is a counterfeit product. How similar do you see the two products?" On the morning of the 27th, at a press conference held by Master Shen Food Co., Ltd., its general manager Shen Qiang looked sad.
The packaging of "Shen Shibo" counterfeit "Master Shen" is only a word difference.
Photo by Que Lei
The two dried egg products placed on site, whether in terms of packaging design, product size, or appearance, are almost identical at a glance. It is difficult to distinguish the difference between the two products.
In daily consumption and shopping, most consumers will not deliberately distinguish the nuances of the two products.
If you look closely, you will find that the upper left corners of the packages of the two products are all heads of people with a small green circle as the background.
The slogan in the same position above the product packaging is "High temperature sterilization, rest assured food", and the other is "rest assured food, high temperature sterilization".
The counterfeit products just changed the front and back positions of the slogan, and they didn’t even want to think about another slogan.
The only difference is that the three words "Master Shen" on the product packaging have been "smartly" changed to "Master Shen"; product names such as "Master Shen" are a respect for skilled craftsmen, while "Master Shen" is It seems to be a person's name.
The core difference lies in the two characters "Fu" and "Bo". There is only one word difference, but only the left side of the font is different.
When the overall product packaging is highly similar, it is difficult for consumers to find such subtle differences when shopping.
From these two highly consistent products, we can see how "Shen Shifu" counterfeiters "Shen Shibo" dealt with their deliberations, as well as the "good intentions" of the famous brand.
Shen Qiang, general manager of Master Shen Food Co., Ltd. introduced the relevant situation.
Du Chengshe
Industry-leading "Master Shen" attracts malicious counterfeiters
Cai Jun, the production director of Master Shen Food Co., Ltd., introduced that "Shen Shibo", a manufacturer that maliciously imitated the company's dried egg products, had carried out malicious infringements for several years.
The company warned it as early as 2018, but the actual controller of the manufacturer refused to stop the infringement, but instead intensified it. In July 2018 and December 2019, the company established Xi'an and Chongqing "Shen Shibo" companies.
Not only continued to counterfeit brands and packaging, but also increased the scale of production, threatening to be an "upgraded version" of "Master Shen" Egg Dryer!
"Not only has it caused immeasurable losses to our company's goodwill and the market, but its infringement has also harmed the legitimate rights and interests of consumers."
In recent years, it is not the aforementioned "Shen Shibo" enterprise that has committed malicious infringement of "Master Shen" eggs.
Among the products on display, a product named Jingxin Food Co., Ltd. also directly counterfeited the trademark of "Master Shen" to sell dried egg products.
Public information shows that Master Shen Food Co., Ltd. is a leading enterprise in China's egg dried product industry.
Up to now, the annual sales of Master Shen's eggs have exceeded 300 million yuan, and the cumulative sales have exceeded 2 billion yuan. The market share has been ranked first in the industry in the country, and the market share has exceeded 40%.
Cai Jun said that it is precisely because of the company's leading position in the market that the company's dried egg products have attracted these malicious counterfeiters.
These counterfeit and counterfeit products are sold on the market, which has brought huge negative effects and economic losses to the corporate reputation.
"Master Shen" dried egg products.
Photo by Que Lei
Entrepreneurship story: The founder’s love for daughter is eager to create "Master Shen"
According to reports, Shen Guoping, a well-known food entrepreneur known as the "Father of Dried Eggs", is the founder of Master Shen Food Co., Ltd., and many media have reported his legendary entrepreneurial story.
In the 1990s, Shen Guoping, who loves cooking, did not like to eat eggs and egg yolks because of his daughter's childhood, but the daughter who worked as a model had higher dietary requirements.
Therefore, Shen Guoping suddenly thought, what if the taste of egg yolk becomes the same as egg white?
After reading a large amount of information and conducting thousands of experiments, Shen Guoping lasted 8 years, exploded multiple pressure cookers, and used tens of thousands of catties of eggs. In 1998, he finally developed a mixture of egg yolk and egg white into an egg liquid. The solid egg product is named "Dried Eggs".
In 2006, the 61-year-old Shen Guoping resolutely sold two of his own houses, took out all his life savings, and put together more than 1 million yuan as the start-up capital to set up Guoping Food Factory and began to specialize in the production of dried eggs.
At the beginning of the business, the product was cold, but Shen Guoping did not give up.
At the age of sixties, I took employees to promote products to merchants through various methods, and even attracted the attention of merchants and consumers through disco at the National Sugar and Wine Fair held in Chengdu, and took the opportunity to promote dried egg products.
The arduous entrepreneurship finally gained high recognition from the market.
In 2012, the annual sales of "Master Shen" dried egg products exceeded the 100 million yuan mark for the first time; in 2017, the cumulative sales of Master Shen's 150g classic dried eggs with soy sauce exceeded the 1 billion mark; in 2018, Shen Guoping's son Shen Qiang gave up his job as an executive in the world's top 500 and took over the company founded by his father; in 2019, Master Shen's annual sales exceeded 300 million yuan...
Increase law enforcement to protect well-known corporate brands from infringement
It is understood that as early as 2010, Master Shen Food Co., Ltd. started to register trademarks such as "Master Shen" and "Master Shen Egg Dry" with the Trademark Office of the State Administration for Industry and Commerce in order to avoid malicious counterfeiting of products. Obtained the legal ownership of such trademarks.
"Over the years, counterfeit and inferior products continue to use various methods to embezzle the company's market and damage the company's product reputation. People who look the same products feel bad after buying and eating, and this loss will be counted on us!" Cai Jun said helplessly.
In order to protect the company’s legal rights and interests from infringement, "Master Shen" has recently formally reported to relevant departments such as the Chang'an District Market Supervision Administration of Xi’an City and the Chongqing Yuzhong District Market Supervision Administration of the company’s trademark rights and Malicious infringement of product packaging copyright.
It is understood that the person in charge of the "Shen Shibo" manufacturer has recently been taken coercive measures by the local police due to the huge number and value of counterfeit products.
Professor Wu Changkang from the Law School of Sichuan University believes that after more than ten years of brand promotion, "Master Shen" egg dried products have established a high reputation and influence in similar domestic markets.
Counterfeit and counterfeit dried egg products such as "Shen Shibo" are deliberately identical or similar to "Master Shen" products in terms of product packaging, main color and combination of text elements, which confuses the source of services, seriously misleads consumers, and disrupts The normal market operation order also constitutes unfair competition.
Relevant experts in the industry said that brand is the foundation of an enterprise. In order to combat malicious trademark infringement, the country has continuously improved intellectual property laws and regulations in recent years. However, in the real economy, some infringers have benefited greatly from "scratching famous brands to make quick money", causing malicious infringements to occur repeatedly, and some even brazenly, which has brought a serious impact on brand companies like "Master Shen" , Had to invest huge manpower and material resources to safeguard rights. (Finish)