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Although more than five years have passed, the dispute surrounding Red Bull shareholders continues to stage new drama. At this time, due to the two civil judgments of the Zaozhuang Court, the dispute between the two sides has again escalated.
The “Daily Economic News” reporter noted that, due to the differences between the two parties in the dispute over the authorization period of the Red Bull series of trademarks, the Intermediate People’s Court of Zaozhuang City, Shandong Province (hereinafter referred to as Court Zaozhuang Intermediate) recently accepted Red Bull Vitamin Beverage Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as the joint venture company or Reignwood Red Bull Retention Request) was revoked shortly after the ruling was issued.
The Zaozhuang Intermediate Court first ruled on October 29 that Thailand Tencel Healthcare Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Tencel Group), the owner of the Red Bull series of brands, should discontinue and not continue to manufacture and sell products. for Red Bull beverages in China; half a month Subsequently, the court also lifted the previous ban on sales for related reasons such as “the state of emergency was lifted”.
Regarding the reasons and interpretation of the overturning of the ruling by the Intermediate Court of Zaozhuang, both parties to the litigation expressed different views, and the commercial disputes concerning Red Bull’s shareholders also fell back on Rashomon. Although the dispute was still unsuccessful, under the market offensive of Tencel Red Bull, Reignwood Red Bull faced the loss of economic interests.
As for when this century’s dispute will have a clear conclusion, we still have to await the verdict of the Second International Commercial Court of the Supreme People’s Court (hereinafter referred to as the International Commercial Court).
The court ruled that a “rollover” occurred and the two sides explained
On November 16, a statement released by Reignwood Red Bull kicked off the escalation of the dispute: after the two sides had “passed” several times, the Zaozhuang Intermediate Court issued a ruling and a ruling on the suspension of the product. Tencel Group. The ignored event is gradually rolled back.
The reporter learned that, as the owner of the Red Bull series of brands, Tencel Group believes that its exclusive authorization for the Reignwood Red Bull brand is only 20 years old and expires as early as 2016. However, Reignwood Red Bull insists on the fact. that the cooperation between the two sides is based on a “50-year agreement” and that it can still operate exclusively Red Bull drinks in the Chinese market.
In addition to the legal differences in licensing, since June 2019, the TENCEL Group has launched two new high-profile Red Bull products in China (hereinafter collectively referred to as TENCEL Red Bull), which have openly challenged Reignwood Red Bull. As a result, the battlefield of both sides has also extended from litigation to the market level.
Red Bull Vitamin Functional Drink (Reignwood Red Bull) sold in a convenience store in Beijing
Photo source: photo by Li Shiqi, a reporter
In October of this year, Reignwood Red Bull officially filed a lawsuit with the Zaozhuang Intermediate Court and filed a behavior retention application in order to suspend the Tencel Group’s current operations in China. According to the “civil ruling” (hereinafter referred to as ruling 1) issued by the Zaozhuang Intermediate Court on October 29, Reignwood Red Bull’s claim was immediately upheld by the court: Tencel group should immediately stop and not continue production in China, Sales (including self-production, sale or licensing of other third parties for the manufacture and sale of Tencel Red Bull beverages).
Reignwood Red Bull plays it and has stated that the Zaozhuang Intermediate Court has ruled that it has the exclusive right to make and sell Red Bull drinks in China within 50 years. However, according to statement documents released by both sides at a later stage, only half a month after the ruling was issued, the Zaozhuang Court was quashed in a new “civil ruling” (ruling 2). As for the specific reasons for his dismissal, the reporter called the Zaozhuang Intermediate Court several times on November 20, but the call was not connected.
Based on the aforementioned context, Reignwood Red Bull and Tencel Group have once again fallen into a war of words of each other. According to the lawyers of Reignwood Red Bull, the reason for the ruling was that the state of “emergency” on which the ruling was based was lifted and the continued adoption of conservation measures that prohibit the production and sale of the Tencel Group has lost the its urgency and necessity. Although the Zaozhuang Intermediate People’s Court overturned the first ruling, the court did not change its determination of the exclusive right to manufacture and sell Tencel Red Bull for 50 years.
The Tencel Group told reporters that before the sentence was overturned, the market supervision and management department had already revoked the administrative documents against the Tencel Group, so there was no real situation in which the state of “emergency” claimed by the other party had been revoked.
Tencel Group also added that Reignwood Red Bull continues to make and sell Red Bull drinks without authorization. With Tencel Group’s rights protection, as of this year, Reignwood’s products have been suspected of trademark infringement in the country. The land was removed from the market oversight office.
Li Junhui, a special researcher at the Intellectual Property Research Center of China University of Political Science and Law, said that, based on current information, Reignwood Red Bull is already trying to contact the market supervision departments in Guangdong, Yunnan, Xinjiang and other provinces to introduce administrative supervision and may face violations. Dispute between the silk group to provide relief. However, after the intervention of the administrative department, the judge tended to believe that the actual need to continue to enforce the ban was no longer sufficient.
Reignwood Red Bull claims to lose more than 2 billion in industrial production 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 requests from reporters from the “Daily Business News”, both Reignwood Red Bull and Tencel Group were unwilling to produce the aforementioned ruling.
It is worth noting that after the ruling was issued, Tencel Red Bull’s downstream distributors in many places were affected to some degree and Tencel Red Bull’s products were also removed from the shelves.
According to regulatory documents received from several Guangdong and Hunan distributors from the local market supervision and management department, in early November, a number of Tencel Red Bull distributors were suspected of using other products that could induce people to misunderstand the products of others or interact with others. “There is a specific association of confusion”, etc., are required to “order to stop illegal activities” and “to stop selling Tencel Red Bull off the shelves.” But just a few days later, the order correction notice was lifted.
Source of market oversight documents issued by a given location in Hunan province: photo courtesy of respondents
Image source of notification of revoked rectification documents in a given location: Photo courtesy of the interviewee
A Guangdong Tencel Red Bull retailer said supervisors didn’t explain much when they arrived and the supermarket cooperated to remove the products. But a few days later, he was informed that he could resume selling Tencel Red Bull drinks. He also claimed he never got the attention of regulators for selling Tencel Red Bull before.
Compared to Tencel Red Bull, Reignwood Red Bull is even more influenced by the market due to the situation of brand licensing and joint venture disputes. Reignwood Red Bull attorney Chen Ruojian said in a statement that in 2014, Tencel Group stopped supplying flavorings and fragrances to Reignwood Red Bull and sent a letter asking Reignwood Red Bull to stop using the Red brand. Bull and immediately initiated more than a dozen legal proceedings and “” Illegal “wrote to the Beijing Department of Industry and Commerce to obstruct the legal extension of Reignwood Red Bull’s operating period, resulting in the suspension of Reignwood production. Red Bull in 2019, resulting in the unemployment of 1,000 workers and the loss of over 2 billion yuan in industrial production value.
It should be noted that the alleged impairment of Reignwood Red Bull’s production has not been confirmed and its joint venture production base in Huairou, Beijing has not been completely closed.
It is not difficult to see that under the stalemate of the controversy that lasted for several years, both Yan Bin and the Xu family behind the Tencel group looked anxious. On the other hand, because the central lawsuits of the dispute between the two parties were accepted by the International Commercial Court and entered the trial phase in 2019 according to the principle of “first and last instance”, but so far there is no clear judgment result in relevant cases. Therefore, this tug-of-war of the Red Bull Century dispute could continue.
Regarding the Red Bull case series litigation by other courts prior to the International Commercial Court ruling, Li Junhui said that when the International Commercial Court initiated the Red Bull case series trial, other courts may not accept it. again if there are no new facts. Cases based on the same fact or dispute.
Cover image source: photo by reporter Li Shiqi
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