Legal Research

Danone v. Wahaha lawsuit

By jlutz99

China Business Law Blog has an interesting post on the Danone v. Wahala lawsuit.  Here's an excerpt:

.... In 1996, the two parties signed a trademark agreement, transferring the ?Wahaha? trademark from the Wahaha Co. to the then newly formed joint venture.  However, the Trademark Office of China disapproved this transfer.  So in the eyes of Chinese law, the transfer was never consummated, and there was no deal to speak of in terms of an IP transfer.

In 1999, the parties got creative about the trademark ?transfer.? Instead of calling it a ?transfer,? they signed another agreement, titling it ?Trademark Use Agreement.?  And of course, this deal was done under the table, irrespective of Chinese law.  Things went along smoothly and well for seven years, until 2006 when Danone found that it was not getting all the money that it should, and that its Chinese partner was competing against the JV.  To end all the ?trickery,? Danone decided to buy out the Chinese partner, Zong Qinghou, but only to be rejected.

Read the whole post here.

Posted by Jon Lutz

Full post as published by FSU College of Law Library Blog on August 12, 2008 (boomark / email).