Hanoi, 2nd November - Sconnect Vietnam announced that Sconnect Media LLC, based in Sussex, Delaware, will represent them to protect Wolfoo cartoon's business rights in the United States. A lawsuit may be considered.
Sconnect Vietnam, based in Hanoi, Vietnam, owns the Wolfoo cartoon series, while Entertainment One UK LTD (eOne) is the owner of the TV show Peppa Pig.
Since 2022, Sconnect and eOne have been involved in lawsuits over intellectual property infringement in Russia and the UK. Despite Sconnect's win in Russia case, YouTube accepted the request from eOne to delete Wolfoo videos on Youtube for copyright infringement, leading Sconnect to a loss of millions of dollars.
Wolfoo's three diamond play button channels and other channels with millions of subscribers have been blocked from uploading new videos. The series' monthly views dropped from 3 billion to 1 billion, posing great damage on Wolfoo's subscriber rate, business reputation and performance.
On October 12, 2022, the Vietnam Digital Communications Association (VDCA) defended Sconnect Vietnam's business rights. Mr. Nguyen Xuan Cuong, Vice President of VDCA urged that Vietnam's Ministry of Information and Communications should soon make clear with YouTube to ensure equal business rights for the Vietnamese business. As YouTube has blocked Sconnect's Wolfoo videos due to the lawsuit in the UK, YouTube should also block eOne's Peppa Pig videos due to Sconnect's lawsuit in Hanoi.
" Sconnect should also act immediately to protect Wolfoo's business rights in the United States", shared VDCA.
Development of the lawsuits between Wolfoo and Peppa Pig
In Russia:
On January 1, 2022, eOne filed a lawsuit against Sconnect at the Moscow City Court (Russia) alleging that Wolfoo's characters are the remake of Peppa Pig ones' and the illegal posting and dissemination on the Internet derivative work - which means the Wolfoo videos.
On June 14, 2022, the Center for Forensic Expertise and Research ANO concluded that "The Wolfoo characters set is entirely an independent creation and is not a reworked or derivative of Peppa Pig" after a comparative analysis of Wolfoo and Peppa Pig characters. This supported that Wolfoo cartoon is an independent intellectual property product in terms of both scientific and technical creativity and legal value.
On July 7, Moscow City Court terminated eOne's lawsuit and therefore, eOne would not be able to file similar cases against Sconnect. In August 2022, Sconnect filed a lawsuit looking for compensation for the damage caused by the case.
In the United Kingdom:
On January 24, eOne file a case against Sconnect Vietnam at the High Court of Justice as followed: rework of Peppa Pig characters, using the art style of Peppa Pig, using the exclamation sounds from Peppa Pig in 91 Wolfoo videos; causing unfair competition, causing the misunderstanding that Wolfoo and Peppa Pig share the same owner and violating the trademark of Peppa Pig.
Due to underlying issues over the jurisdiction of the High Court of Justice over this case, the lawsuit filed by eOne is not legally enforceable. The case will be under review until hearings later this year.
Later, on July 6, eOne admitted the usage of the Wolfoo keyword in video and channel tags of Peppa Pig Youtube videos to attract viewers to the Peppa Pig series.
In Vietnam:
On August 19, Sconnect filed a case against eOne at the People's Court of Hanoi for using Wolfoo's tags in Peppa Pig videos. However, eOne did not participate in the first mediation trial on August 29 in Hanoi.
On September 14, Sconnect filed another case regarding eOne's impersonation of Wolfoo's owner and using technical measures that disabled Sconnect's business with Wolfoo.
About Sconnect
Sconnect Vietnam (based in Hanoi, Vietnam) and Sconnect Media LLC (Sussex, Delaware, United States) are the owners and producers of Wolfoo - an animated series about little wolf Wolfoo and his friends and family. Wolfoo animated videos (2.700 episodes) are translated into 17 languages and distributed on Youtube, Facebook, Tiktok, television and online platform in many countries. Wolfoo registered its trademarks and copyrights in Vietnam, the US, Russia, and many other countries. Mr. Ta Manh Hoang is the representative and owner of both Sconnect Vietnam and Sconnect Media LLC.
