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In response to the above situation, China Red Bull responded, "This is false information, and all production and sales of China Red Bull are normal. For illegal activities such as spreading rumors and malicious smearing, China Red Bull will promptly obtain evidence and firmly pursue responsibility in accordance with the law

Is Chinese Red Bull Prohibited from Production and Sales?

According to the Yangcheng Evening News, recently, Thailand's Tiansi Medical and Health Co., Ltd. stated that it has received the latest judgment that Chinese Red Bull has been banned from production and sales.

According to the judgment, on October 31, 2022, the Jilin High Court made a first instance judgment on the case of Thai Tiansi against Red Bull Vitamin Beverage (Hubei) Co., Ltd., Beijing Red Bull Beverage Sales Co., Ltd., and Jilin Branch of Beijing Red Bull Beverage Sales Co., Ltd., which infringed the exclusive right of Red Bull's trademark and unfair competition: the three enterprises immediately stopped producing and selling "Red Bull Vitamin Functional Beverage", Immediately stop using the enterprise name containing the words "Red Bull", and jointly compensate the plaintiff, Thai Tencent, for 30 million yuan.

Thailand Tencel confirmed the above information, and said at the same time that, in addition to the judicial determination of infringement, mainstream channels in the market, including JD, Tmall, PetroChina, Sinopec, Wal Mart, etc., have completely removed the infringing commodity "Red Bull Vitamin Functional Drink", that is, Red Bull products produced by Huabin Group. In addition, market supervision and management departments in multiple regions are also continuously conducting administrative investigations and warning notices on merchants selling "Huabin Red Bull".

Chinese Red Bull's Emergency Response: The Water Army Spreads Rumors

The person in charge of China Red Bull stated that these false information and statements attempt to confuse the public and mislead the public, which has seriously constituted a violation of the reputation of China Red Bull. For illegal activities such as spreading rumors and malicious defamation, China Red Bull will promptly obtain evidence and resolutely pursue responsibility in accordance with the law.

As for the judgment (2016) JMC No. 34 issued by Jilin Provincial High People's Court received by Thailand Tiansi, the relevant person in charge of Red Bull said that many judgments such as the first instance judgments of Jilin High Court, Zhejiang High Court and Tianhe Court were the result of years of indiscriminate litigation by Thailand Tiansi since 2016, not effective judgments, nor have Res judicata or executive force. The relevant parties will appeal in accordance with the law to safeguard their rights and interests.

Red Bull originated in Thailand, while Red Bull is in China

Red Bull was created by Chaleo Yoovidhya, a Thai. The enterprise he founded in 1966 was born Red Bull. Because Red Bull is very popular in Thailand, Chaleo Yoovidhya once became the second richest person of Forbes in Thailand.

The brand of Red Bull has natural advantages. From the name, it can be seen that "Red" and "Bull" are inherently full of power and energy, in line with consumers' perception of energy.

So, its brand name and positioning are very prominent, which just filled the gap in functional beverages at that time and made it easy to achieve success in marketing.

In 1982, Austrian Matthitz, who was on a business trip to Thailand, unexpectedly discovered that Red Bull had a great effect on alleviating jet lag. Later, he found Chaleo Yoovidhya and they hit it off. In 1984, they each invested 500000 dollars and held 49% of the equity respectively (the remaining 2% was held by Chaleo Yoovidhya's son), and jointly founded the Austrian Red Bull Company. Although there was a slight concession in the shares, Matthitz was the actual operator of the company and the driving force behind Red Bull's entry into the international market.

In 1984, Yan Bin founded Huabin Group in Thailand and officially introduced Red Bull through authorized operations. Red Bull officially entered China in 1995. In December 1995, Chinese businessman Yan Bin acquired the right to operate the Red Bull trademark in China, established a factory in Shenzhen and established Red Bull Vitamin Beverage Co., Ltd. After the Spring Festival Gala that year, an advertisement called "Red Bull Comes to China" brought it into the eyes of Chinese people.

Subsequently, the Chinese Red Bull adopted the most popular and immediate tactic in China at that time - continuously placing prime time advertisements on television stations. Its advertising slogans, such as "The car needs gas, I want to drink Red Bull" and "If you're thirsty, drink Red Bull, but if you're tired and sleepy, drink Red Bull", are deeply rooted in people's hearts.

Afterwards, the Red Bull kept running in the spirit of "your energy surpasses your imagination".

With the strong driving force of advertising, China Red Bull has established a nationwide agency distribution system in just one or two years, firmly capturing drivers, students, business owners, white-collar workers, and nightlife groups, becoming the first brand of functional beverages in China.

The trademark dispute between both parties has been ongoing for 7 years

However, this Sino Thai commercial cooperation underwent changes after 20 years.

In October 2016, Thailand's Tense filed a trademark infringement lawsuit against Huabin Group's China Red Bull, claiming that "the authorized operation period agreed upon by both parties is 20 years and has expired. Huabin Red Bull needs to stop using the 'Red Bull' brand". Huabin Group is dissatisfied and insists that the initial agreed upon operating period was 50 years. "When registering the company, the operating period was only set at 20 years due to regulatory restrictions. Since then, both sides of the cooperation have entered a trademark competition that has lasted for many years, with multiple lawsuits involving Huabin Red Bull distributors, channel providers, suppliers, etc.

At the beginning of 2019, Huabin Red Bull filed a lawsuit against Thailand's Tian Si and others in the Qianhai Court in Shenzhen, Guangdong, requesting a ruling that the "50 year agreement" was valid. On the evening of December 29, 2022, China Red Bull announced that "the company has received a judgment from the Shenzhen Qianhai Court, which not only confirms the legality of 'China Red Bull' enjoying exclusive operation of Red Bull beverages in China for 50 years since 1995, but also confirms the illegality of Thai Tencent and any third party's production and sales of Red Bull beverages in China

On the noon of December 30, 2022, Thailand's Tencel issued a statement regarding the "50 Year Agreement", refuting the relevant remarks of China Red Bull. Thailand's Tian Si believes that the civil judgment of the People's Court of Shenzhen Qianhai Cooperation Zone is a "first instance judgment that has not yet come into effect", and the company has initiated an appeal process and will resolutely safeguard its own rights and interests through judicial procedures.

If possible, companies prefer trademark transfer

Trademark authorization is for the licensor to ultimately lease someone else's registered trademark. Once the approval contract expires or due to personal reasons, the internal business process of the enterprise will be severely affected. In this way, the risk of trademark transfer is much smaller.

Specifically, in the case of Red Bull trademark authorization, if it could choose trademark transfer at that time, there would not have been so many grudges and grudges. Of course, the possibility of trademark transfer was also very small at that time.

But this still reminds all business operators that, compared to trademark authorization, if they have a choice, they must choose the preferred path of trademark transfer, which can significantly reduce the probability of "marrying others".

There are many benefits of trademark transfer.

Firstly, the time is short. Trademark transfer takes much less time than registration, and many trademark transfers can be agreed upon to be used during the transfer process, achieving seamless integration.

Secondly, the success rate is high. Trademark transfer does not have the risk of rejection like registration, and there is generally no case of transfer failure in trademark transfer.

Thirdly, clear ownership. The ownership of the transferred trademark is clear, and compared to the trademark license, the probability of making wedding clothes for others is much lower.

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