Fur flies over Teletubbies

IT firm NEC (China) Co Ltd and China"s largest IT outsourcing company Neusoft Corporation are going to set up a joint venture in October with a total investment of 50 million yuan 

Court restores trademark for use by Chinese food and drinks company

Teletubbies may have been designed as child"s play, but the popular children"s TV series has triggered a complex and very adult wrangle over a trademark based on its Chinese translation.
　

The first episode in the saga began when food company Quansheng in Quanzhou, Fujian province registered the characters - the Chinese translation of Teletubbies - as a trademark in 2002 for use in milk and drinks, then transferred the trademark to Tianxian Baobao Co Ltd, another food firm in Quanzhou, four years later.
　

Ragdoll Productions (UK) Ltd, trademark owner of Teletubbies, raised an objection to the registration and applied for it to be voided by the Trademark Appeal Board of the State Administration for Industry and Commerce in 2004.


　

The appeal board ruled that the Quanzhou firm knew or should have known that was created by others, yet still registered it as a trademark.
　

The board revoked the disputed trademark in 2009. Tianxian Baobao then filed a Beijing court complaint against the board itself.
　

A representative of Ragdoll told the court that the complaint was groundless and the original "infringement on intangible property and goodwill is no different from an overt robbery of physical property".
　

Yet the court overturned the board"s decision on Monday, ruling that as a Chinese trademark "does not constitute an adverse effect on public interest and social order".
　

The board"s previous revocation of Tianxian Baobao"s trademark found that company intended to take advantage of a well-known brand created by someone else, which was "an act against social ethnics that misled consumers and damaged the public interest".
　

On Monday the court ruled that the board mixed the interest of a specific organization with the public interest, so cancellation of the trademark was not appropriate.
　

The ruling said trademark disputes that allege damages to a specific interest should be settled using other procedures in the trademark law.
　

It is not the first time the cartoon co-produced by the BBC and Ragdoll has been embroiled in a legal battle.
　

In 2000, a Dutch court ruled a former homeless man had the right to use the Teletubbies trademark on products in the Benelux countries, according to the BBC.
　

The TV program for children from 1 to 4 years old has now been translated into 45 languages and is seen in 113 countries.