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Blue Whale News, August 15 (Reporter Tang Shiyun)Recently, some netizens discovered that a live broadcast room under the app “Make Friends” sold a number of Putian Yeezy shoes of a certain brand, which looked almost identical to the Yeezy series officially produced by Adidas. The customer service of the store involved said that the shoes were domestic Putian shoes developed by their own brand and did not have any other brand logos.

However, this is not the first time that "Make Friends" has been questioned for selling counterfeit shoes. Previously, Luo Yonghao responded that "legal reproduction is completely fine."

Is the "Make Friends" channel selling "copycat shoes"? The live broadcast room customer service said there is no infringement issue

When netizen momo opened the live broadcast room of "Make Friends", she realized that she had seen it wrong before. The fashionable shoes on the model's feet, which cost 198 yuan, looked very similar to the Yeezy 500 officially produced by Adidas. This shoe comes from a brand called "KABASHA". Clicking on the related store, the brand claims to be the "largest supplier of Putian coconut shoes" (95% of the goods on the market are from us).

A Blue Whale reporter found that "Jiao Ge Pengyou Fashion Clothing" and "Jiao Ge Pengyou Commuter Clothing" have sold a variety of KABASHA brand coconut shoes, which are highly similar in appearance to Yeezy 350, Yeezy 500 and Yeezy 700. The brand sold very well in the Jiao Ge Pengyou live broadcast room. According to Feigua data, KABASHA was the brand with the highest sales in their month.

Image source: Feigua Data

Taking the data of "Make Friends Fashion Clothing" on the evening of August 14 as an example, its total live broadcast sales were about 250,000 to 500,000, of which this Yeezy500-like coconut shoe contributed the most and was the best-selling product in the live broadcast room that night.

It is not biased to say that this Putian brand accounts for half of the sales in the aforementioned live broadcast room of Make Friends.

According to the homepage of KABASHA's Douyin official flagship store, the brand became a foreign brand shoe OEM in 1998 and a supplier of Putian shoe stalls. Six years ago, it created its own brand "Coconut" and transformed from a traditional OEM to an e-commerce company. It currently operates offline stores. In the product details page, the store specifically reminds that the company name is "Putian Zumai Trading Co., Ltd." and please do not confuse it with other brands.

Tianyancha information shows that Putian Zumai Trading Co., Ltd. does not have a trademark named "Coconut" and has two legal cases involving trademark infringement disputes.

The Yeezy series of sports shoes jointly launched by Adidas and American singer Kanye West are well-known to everyone. The appearance of KABASHA's shoes is so similar to that of Yeezy, is it an infringement?

In response, the customer service of KABASHA flagship store said that KABASHA is an independent brand and has nothing to do with other brands. The shoes sold are domestic Putian shoes developed by its own brand without other brand logos, and "the appearance and feel are the same as the original version." In addition, the customer service of the live broadcast room under Jiaogepengyou responded that there is no infringement problem with the shoes, "If there is such a problem, we will not put them on the shelves."

Earlier, Jiaogepengyou was questioned by netizens for selling knockoff shoes. A shoe produced by Luo Yonghao's brand "Reload" looked "almost identical" to Nike Air Force One. At that time, he explained the definitions of replica and plagiarism to the audience. Luo Yonghao said that replica refers to the legal copying of expired appearance patents, which is completely legal and in line with business logic. In addition, he also mentioned that "the appearance protection of Yeezy shoes has not expired, so it cannot be made."

Does Putian shoe brand infringe copyright by imitating the appearance of big brands?

In addition to KABASHA mentioned above, there are many sports shoe brands on the market that imitate the appearance of Yeezy. How can we identify and define whether they are infringing?

An intellectual property lawyer told Blue Whale that the question of whether the same layout design infringes upon the rights of others is rather complicated, and may involve design patents, and may also violate the Anti-Unfair Competition Law. Even if the design patent expires, it does not affect the protection of the Anti-Unfair Competition Law. The latter stipulates that operators shall not use the same or similar marks as the product names, packaging, decorations, etc. that have a certain influence on others.

Yao Huanqing, deputy secretary-general of the Intellectual Property Law Research Institute of the Chinese Law Society and associate professor of the Intellectual Property School of Renmin University of China, gave a more detailed explanation. To determine whether the products in the news may constitute infringement, we must consider both the infringement of design patents and the infringement of trademarks. Taking the aforementioned KABASHA coconut shoes as an example, Adidas owns several Yeezy appearance patents, which have not expired. Judging from the comparison of the two shoes alone, the possibility of similar appearance is relatively high.

On the other hand, the question of whether it constitutes trademark infringement is more interesting. Professor Yao Huanqing pointed out that domestic consumers are accustomed to transliterating Adidas' Yeezy series sports shoes as "Coconut", which may fall within the scope of brand trademark rights under normal circumstances. However, domestic brands including KABASHA currently use the expression "Coconut Shoes" in product descriptions, making "Coconut Shoes" a type of shoe style and thus a generic name for the product, so the probability of claiming infringement is low.

In the discussion of the aforementioned hot events, KABASHA's identity as a Putian shoe was particularly eye-catching.

When talking about Putian shoes, most people will associate them with "A-grade goods" and "high imitations". Putian shoes have always been spread in a more gray and secretive form, but in recent years they have become more popular.

In 2022, the first Putian footwear collective trademark declared by the Putian Footwear Association was approved for registration by the State Intellectual Property Office, and the collective trademark is valid until February 27, 2032. From then on, Putian shoes also have their own name.

According to Putian Radio and Television Station, in order to make the "Putian Shoes" regional brand widely recognized by market players and consumers, the local area has formulated a series of "Putian Shoes" group standards.

In fact, in addition to appearing in the top live broadcast rooms, Putian shoe brands have also begun to expand their stores offline. Blue Whale News previously reported that an offline chain store called "Putian is Coming" is conquering small cities in China.

According to official introduction, "Putian is here" is spread across 23 provinces in China. The brand customer service told reporters that more than 170 stores have been opened so far this year, and the goal is to reach the goal of 1,000 stores nationwide in 2024. The brand investment manual shows that "before all the company's products are listed, lawyers will conduct product authorization review and submit them to the industrial and commercial department to complete product authorization certification, and provide product quality inspection reports and certificates."

Consumers are waiting to see whether Putian shoes can eventually regain their reputation.