IP attorney believes Russian court ruling on Peppa Pig case raised awareness of content creators
13 September 2022
An intellectual property attorney in Vietnam said she and her colleagues believe a recent Russian court ruling on an IP infringement case involving the famous animated show Peppa Pig has increased awareness of IP among content creators in Vietnam.
“This case has been widely reported in the Vietnam media. Although there are currently no final results, we believe this case attracts the attention of content creators in Vietnam and has also increased their IP awareness,” said Yen Pham, trademark head and senior IP attorney at Schmitt & Orlov Southeast Asia.
The Moscow City Court has ruled in favor of a Vietnamese online video production outfit Sconnect in a case involving Peppa Pig franchise owner Entertainment One (eOne).
The British enterprise eOne sued Sconnect, popular for its online animated shows for children and owner of several YouTube channels, for IP infringement in Russia and the UK.
Among Sconnect’s lineup of shows is Wolfoo, about an anthropomorphic wolf cub named Wolfoo, his family and his best friends Pando and Kat. According to eOne, the show bears similarities to Peppa Pig, or Svinka Peppa in Russian, thus infringing its IP rights. Peppa Pig revolves around a family of pigs.
To date, Wolfoo has had three seasons and more than 1,400 episodes. Sconnect also has more than 130 million YouTube followers.
“With the rapid development of the internet as well as Vietnam's extensive entry into the international market, content creators in Vietnam now not only consider the scope of their creative works in Vietnam, but they also reach out to worldwide audiences and markets. In this context, it is extremely important and necessary for Vietnam companies to be aware of copyrights and other IP owned by other parties to avoid IP conflicts, which are very expensive and can cause reputational and commercial damage,” said Pham.
The Vietnamese company has moved to countersue the Peppa Pig franchise owner in Moscow.
The UK court has not yet ruled on the case.
-- Espie Angelica A. de Leon
