Recently, Chaoyang District People’s Court of Beijing made a first-instance judgment (No. 61415 (2017) Jing 0105 MC) in the case that the plaintiff Beijing MEELIV Network Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Yingke Company) accused defendant Tianjin Reach Glory Culture Communication Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Reach Glory) of the contract dispute over products placement. The defendant Reach Glory was ordered to refund Yingke Company 2,561,551 yuan and compensate part of the rights protection expenses. In this case, lawyers Yong WANG and Chenlin JIN, senior partners of JT&N, represented Yingke Company.
The dispute in this case arose from the plaintiff Yingke Company’s dissatisfaction with the advertising effect in Transformers 5. Yingke Company is the developer of live App “Yingke”. It hopes to implant Yingke App Logo into the movie through cooperation with Paramount Pictures, the producer of Transformers 5. The defendant Reach Glory signed the contract with Yingke on behalf of Paramount Pictures. Before the movie was released in China, Paramount Pictures invited advertisers such as Yingke Company to the United States to watch the rushes of Transformers 5. Yingke Company found that its logo was embedded ambiguously beyond recognition, thus failing to achieve the effect agreed in the contract. Therefore, it requested the defendant and the film company to take remedial measures to modify the film. However, it is regrettable that the effect of products placement has not been improved after the actual release of Transformers 5 and thus a lawsuit has been filed.
After our lawyers represented the case, we were unable to understand the actual placement of the advertisement because Transformers 5 has not yet been released in China. At the same time, considering the uncertainty of the film’s release cycle and film schedule, as well as the effect of a large number of analysis and tweet after the release of the film on the investigation of products placement, our lawyers communicated and coordinated with the investigation agencies before the release, designed the questionnaire, and determined the time and scope of the investigation. We contacted with the Notary Office immediately as the film was released to notarize and preserve the inserted fragments in the movie and fix the evidence.
In the end, the court found that the defendant had fulfilled only one of the five products placement obligations stipulated in the contract involved, and part of the plaintiff’s claim were supported based on the actual screening effect of the film.
In recent years, more and more Chinese brands have chosen to cooperate with Hollywood hot movies and implant their own brands in the films. However, due to too many intermediate communication links and the strong position of film companies, the actual effect of products implantation is not ideal. For example, the report of the survey organization shows that the proportion of brands such as Huawei, LeSEE, QQ, Meizu, Vatti, Proscenic (robot cleaner) that can be seen by viewers is even lower than that of Yingke.
This case is another one that JT&N represents the plaintiff to accuse the dispute of products placement in film series of Transformers after our lawyer represented Chongqing Wulong scenery spot to accuse Paramount Pictures (the producer of Transformers 4) and Beijing 1905 Network Technology Co., Ltd. The victory of the two cases will help domestic advertisers to boost their confidence and better safeguard their own interests when defending their rights to international film giants.