TORONTO, April 22, 2019 /CNW/ - Spin Master Corp.
(TSX:TOY; www.spinmaster.com), a leading global children's
entertainment company, announced today that it has recently
received a final judgement in its favour in a patent case against
Suzhou HONGTU Film Animation Co., Ltd. ("Hongtu"). Spin
Master succeeded in its claim that Hongtu infringed Spin Master's
Bakugan patent with its derivative "Sky Warrior" toys.
In September 2017, Hongtu launched
the "Sky Warrior" derivative toy in China, infringing Spin Master's patent rights
relating to the popular Bakugan toy.
In March 2018, Spin Master filed a
lawsuit in the Hangzhou Intermediate People's Court against Hongtu
and three other defendants. In the first instance, the Court ruled
that the "Sky Warrior" toys fall within the scope of Spin Master's
patent and therefore constituted patent infringements. The
Court ordered the defendants to cease all production and sale of
the "Sky Warrior" toy and awarded Spin Master RMB 300,000 (approx. USD $44,100) in compensation. Hongtu appealed
to the Zhejiang Higher People's Court in April 2019. The
Court has now issued a final judgment which affirmed the first
instance decision.
Ben Gadbois, Spin Master's Global
President and COO stated: "We expect our competitors to respect
Spin Master's intellectual property and will take forceful steps if
we believe our rights are being infringed."
Chris Harrs, Spin Master's
General Counsel and Corporate Secretary added: "Given Spin Master's
plans to distribute the Bakugan TV series in China and sell the associated toys, we are
very pleased that the validity and enforceability of the Bakugan
patent has been tested and we would expect that such positive
results will make our future enforcement efforts easier."
About Spin Master and "Bakugan"
In 2007, in collaboration with Sega Toys, TMS and Nelvana, Spin
Master released the Bakugan TV show. As the main derivative product
of the animation, the Bakugan toys were widely welcomed by kids
around the world. Spin Master filed various IP rights globally to
protect Bakugan.
In the past 10 years, Spin Master has spared no effort to
protect its Bakugan IP rights and has filed civil lawsuits globally
against many competitors who attempted to infringe the Bakugan
IP. So far, Spin Master has achieved meaningful success. The
Bakugan patent rights have also withstood attempts by competitors
to invalidate them before the China Patent Reexamination
Board. Ultimately the Board dismissed all such attempted
invalidations and affirmed the strength of the Bakugan patent.
In 2019, Spin Master relaunched the Bakugan TV show and toys
globally.
About Spin Master
Spin Master
(TSX:TOY; www.spinmaster.com) is a leading global children's
entertainment company that creates, designs, manufactures, licenses
and markets a diversified portfolio of innovative toys, games,
products and entertainment properties. Spin Master is best known
for award-winning brands including Zoomer®,
Bakugan®, Erector® by
Meccano®, Hatchimals®, Air
Hogs® and PAW Patrol®. Since 2000, Spin
Master has received 103 TIA Toy of The Year (TOTY) nominations with
30 wins across a variety of product categories, including 13 TOTY
nominations for Innovative Toy of the Year. To date, Spin
Master has produced nine television series, including the
relaunched Bakugan: Battle Planet and current hit PAW Patrol, which
is broadcast in over 160 countries and territories globally.
Spin Master employs over 1,800 people in countries around the
world including Canada, United
States, Mexico, France, Italy, United Kingdom,
Russia, Slovakia, Poland, Germany, Sweden, the Netherlands, China, Hong
Kong, Japan, Vietnam and Australia.
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SOURCE Spin Master Corp.