This online celebrity says a company trademarked his name
A Bilibili vlogger found out a company trademarked his name, an increasingly common problem for Chinese celebrities
It’s not often someone wakes up to find out that the name given to them by their parents now belongs to a company. That’s now a reality for Jing Hanqing.
Jing is an online celebrity with more than 4 million followers on China’s video platform Bilibili. He recently discovered that the name he’s been using his whole life is now owned by someone else. A company has trademarked the vlogger’s name and said he was infringing on their exclusive right to use it as a brand.
It all started July 30, when the vlogger received an email from Zhiqiao Electronic Products claiming that the online channels he operates are in violation of the law. A couple of days later he got another email from a different company advising him to hire a good lawyer because the trademark for his name has “already been transferred a few times,” Jing explained in a video.
(Abacus is a unit of South China Morning Post, which is owned by Alibaba, where Jack Ma is executive chairman.)
Part of the issue is that China is a “first to file” country, meaning the first person or company to file for trademark gets it. This is in contrast to “first to use” countries like the US and UK. So some people are trying to use this first-come, first-serve system to their advantage.
According to Arthur Wu, trademark attorney at Kangxin Partners, registering names of well-known people is forbidden.
“For example, if someone wants to register Chairman Mao Zedong, it will definitely be forbidden,” he said.
But trademark registration examiners often don’t know whether the name being registered actually belongs to a person unless it’s obvious. And in the case of streamers and influencers, it’s unknown whether they’re famous enough to qualify.
China’s permissive trademark system has opened the door to a new type of industry. The country is now home to online companies that specialize in registering trademarks and selling them, according to Catherine Zheng, a China IP lawyer at Deacons.
For a rising online star, losing one’s name and account, potentially with millions of followers, can be devastating. So content creators have been fighting back by doing what they do best: Making content.
“The best thing is to do register the trademark first. Once you’re registered you don’t have to worry anymore,” said Zheng, adding that trademark filing isn’t expensive.