Sconnect Media to protect rights of “Wolfoo” in the US
Wolfoo product sets certificated as standard content | |
Sconnect Vietnam files lawsuits against Entertainment One |
According to the London Daily Post, Sconnect Media LLC (authorized by Sconnect Vietnam) is currently reviewing legal procedures to protect Wolfoo's interests in the United States. Mr. Ta Manh Hoang is the owner representative of both Sconnect Vietnam and Sconnect Media LLC (USA).
Sconnect Vietnam (Headquartered in Hanoi) is the owner of animated character set Wolfoo, while Entertainment ONE UK LTD (EO/eOne - headquartered in London, Britain) is the owner of animated character set Peppa Pig.
Since the beginning of 2022, these two businesses have filed lawsuits against each other in the courts of the Russian Federation, the United Kingdom and Vietnam due to an intellectual property right dispute between Wolfoo and Peppa Pig. The cause was that eOne sued Sconnect in courts in Russia and the UK with the reason that "The Wolfoo character set is a remake of the Peppa Pig character set". At the same time, repeatedly hitting the Wolfoo copyright on YouTube and being accepted by YouTube resulted in millions of dollars in damage to Sconnect.
After copyrighting Wolfoo on YouTube and Facebook, most recently, eOne continued to copyright Wolfoo channel on TikTok and complain about Wolfoo Game copyright on Apple Store, even though Wolfoo Game is a product unrelated to the dispute. However, the copyright claim of eOne was not accepted by TikTok and Apple.
On October 12th, 2022, Vietnam Digital Communications Association (VDCA) stood up to protect the business rights of Sconnect on YouTube. Therefore, VDCA requested YouTube to ensure the fairness of business rights between Vietnam companies and British companies. TechTimes (On November 7th, 2022) quoted Mr. Nguyen Xuan Cuong, Vice President of VDCA:” If Wolfoo’s videos are locked due to being sued in Britain then Peppa Pig videos in this case in Vietnam should be locked by YouTube as well”.
The leader of VDCA added: “Sconnect should take any actions immediately to protect the benefits of Wolfoo in the US’ business market”.
Earlier in July, Sconnect won the case filed by eOne in the Moscow City Court. The court subsequently ended eOne's case and prevented them from filing similar lawsuits against Sconnect in the future.
Despite this victory, YouTube still approved eOne's request to remove Wolfoo video. Not allowing Wolfoo to upload new content caused Wolfoo's monthly views to drop by more than 60%, causing massive damage in subscriber rates, business reputation, and a drop in revenue. Although Sconnect made every effort to provide a complete claim file and asked to respect the decision of the Moscow Court, YouTube did not consider Sconnect's appeal.
In January, 2022, eOne again filed a lawsuit against Sconnect in the UK, but the court in this country has not yet accepted the case.
Wolfoo is producted at Sconnect's studio |
On October 24, 2022, in a self-declaration at the London Court (United Kingdom), eOne testified that: “YouTube is very supportive in removing Wolfoo videos. eOne requests the Court in the UK to ban Wolfoo from appearing on the YouTube platform.” However, at the latest hearing on November 3, 2022, the London Court has not yet issued any ruling. That is, up to now, eOne's lawsuit in the UK has not been accepted by the Court and has no legal value.
So far, the dispute between the two sides has not had any court declaring Wolfoo copyright infringement; No court has ordered any restraints or restrictions on Wolfoo. But Vietnam's cartoon system has been severely damaged on YouTube, because 3 diamond channels and 3 other channels with millions of subscribers were blocked by YouTube from uploading new videos. Not only is the view decline, Wolfoo is also at risk that users will leave the channel if it continues to be unable to upload new content.
Wolfoo animated videos (about 2,700 episodes) are translated into 17 languages, broadcast on many platforms such as YouTube, Facebook, Tiktok; television platforms, online platforms of many other countries around the world. Wolfoo has registered trademarks and copyrights in the United States, Russia, Vietnam and many other countries.
Development of the lawsuits between Wolfoo and Peppa Pig In Russia On January 1, 2022, eOne filed a lawsuit against Sconnect at the Moscow City Court (Russia) alleging that Wolfoo’s characters are the remake of Peppa Pig ones’ and the illegal posting and dissemination on the Internet derivative work - which means the Wolfoo videos. On June 14, 2022, the Center for Forensic Expertise and Research ANO concluded that “The Wolfoo characters set is entirely an independent creation and is not a reworked or derivative of Peppa Pig” after a comparative analysis of Wolfoo and Peppa Pig characters. This supported that Wolfoo cartoon is an independent intellectual property product in terms of both scientific and technical creativity and legal value. On July 7, Moscow City Court terminated eOne’s lawsuit and therefore, eOne would not be able to file similar cases against Sconnect. In August 2022, Sconnect filed a lawsuit looking for compensation for the damage caused by the case. In the United Kingdom On January 24, eOne file a case against Sconnect Vietnam at the High Court of Justice as followed: rework of Peppa Pig characters, using the art style of Peppa Pig, using the exclamation sounds from Peppa Pig in 91 Wolfoo videos; causing unfair competition, causing the misunderstanding that Wolfoo and Peppa Pig share the same owner and violating the trademark of Peppa Pig. Due to underlying issues over the jurisdiction of the High Court of Justice over this case, the lawsuit filed by eOne is not legally enforceable. The case will be under review until hearings later this year. Later, on July 6, eOne admitted the usage of the Wolfoo keyword in video and channel tags of Peppa Pig Youtube videos to attract viewers to the Peppa Pig series. In Vietnam On August 19, Sconnect filed a case against eOne at the People’s Court of Hanoi for using Wolfoo’s tags in Peppa Pig videos. However, eOne did not participate in the first mediation trial on August 29 in Hanoi. On September 14, Sconnect filed another case regarding eOne’s impersonation of Wolfoo's owner and using technical measures that disabled Sconnect's business with Wolfoo. |
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