In the land of liars of thieves, the Beijing ‘people’s court’ ruled in favor of Facebook (U.S.) in a trademark case against some nefarious fuckheads in China who were plastering the name ‘Facebook’ on their beverages. Somehow, someway, the media believes this is a ‘glimmer of hope’ for FB in China.
Please.
As an aside, Apple recently lost a similar case after suing another company in China for brazenly stealing the Apple brand name and stamping it on their low-end leather goods.
Chinese people won’t be able to quench their thirst with a refreshing “face book” beverage, after the U.S. social networking company won a rare trademark victory against a local firm in China.
By contrast, Apple Inc (AAPL.O) last month lost its battle to prevent a domestic company from using the “iPhone” trademark on leather goods in China.
China’s intellectual property protections are often perceived as quite lax but they are steadily improving, lawyers say. The victory may offer a glimmer of hope for Facebook Inc (FB.O) in China, where its social network is not accessible and its business is mainly selling overseas advertising for Chinese companies.
The Beijing Municipal High People’s Court said the Zhongshan Pearl River Drinks application, filed in 2011, to label certain foods and beverages “face book” was an obvious act of copying and harmed fair market competition.
China has a long rich, history, of corporate thievery. As a matter of fact, they have entire Apple Store replicas in China, selling ‘Apple’ branded electronics, none of which that are actually made by Apple–complete forgeries.
Look at this shit.
Then you have the ever popular Sunbucks and Starbox in China.
And then there’s this, a personal favorite of mine.
…hence the growth in the number of millionaires+ over there. It’s a bit easier when one can blatantly steal IP to give you an immediate fan base.
Speaking of which, some pretty shady things going on over at BABA. Avoid it like the plague.
i almost spilled my star fucks coffee on to my laptop..hilarious stuff
And yet Starbucks expects their growth to occur alongside the rise of the Chinese middle class, when they can just as obliviously order their coffee from Star Box.