A series of Wolfoo products unfoundedly taken copyright strike by competitors
Sconnect has continued to send documents to the relevant agencies regarding the latest reports related to copyright dispute between Wolfoo and Peppa Pig, which Sconnect and an enterprise in the UK have been suing each other in the Russia, England and Việt Nam courts.
Sconnect has continued to send documents to the relevant agencies regarding the latest reports related to the copyright dispute between Wolfoo and Peppa Pig, in which Sconnect and an enterprise in the UK have been suing each other in the Russia, England and Việt Nam courts.
Sconnect said the latest developments in the copyright dispute between two famous animated characters Wolfoo (owned by Sconnect Vietnam) and Peppa Pig (owned by Entertainment ONE UK Ltd - abbreviation for eOne or EO), are as follows: in early November 2023, eOne claimed copyright infringement for the sound "Hurray" (0.1 second duration) used in 3D Wolfoo animated series. What is mentioned here is that the 3D Wolfoo version is a separate creative product, unrelated to the disputed images and sounds in Sconnect's Wolfoo 2D animated film.
This is not the first time eOne has claimed copyright infringement in videos unrelated to the copyright dispute between Wolfoo and Peppa Pig. At the end of 2022, eOne filed a copyright claim against the computer programme Wolfoo Game on the App Store (although it was not the subject of the copyright dispute in eOne's lawsuit against Sconnect in the UK High Court). After Sconnect sent legal documents proving legal ownership of the computer programme Wolfoo Game to the App Store's legal department, the platform did not accept eOne's complaint.
In the dispute that has lasted nearly 2 years, the Russian Court issued Decision on Termination of proceedings in July 2022 in which there was no conclusion that Wolfoo infringed Peppa Pig's copyright. Currently, the UK and Việt Nam Courts are in the process of accepting the case. Therefore, there has been no court ruling declaring that Sconnect has infringed copyright, and the imagery presented in the Wolfoo animated series is considered a copy of the Peppa Pig animated series.
Especially in the lawsuit filed at the UK Court, eOne only sued 91 Wolfoo videos, but they used this lawsuit to claim copyright infringement, causing YouTube to remove 3,500 Wolfoo videos (most of which were videos unrelated to the lawsuit).
“eOne abused its intellectual property rights to claim copyright infringement of thousands of Wolfoo videos that were not covered by the lawsuit at the UK High Court, resulting in enormous damages to Sconnect. It is estimated that we have incurred damages of over US$10 million due to the removal of 3,500 videos without basis," a representative from Sconnect added.
“The Wolfoo videos containing the elements alleged by eOne have also been removed by YouTube and no longer exist on the platform. Although no court has issued a final ruling on the dispute outside the Moscow court, Sconnect has proactively removed any disputed elements from the new Wolfoo videos since the dispute began to minimize risks. But eOne still continues to copyright-claim videos unrelated to the lawsuit in the UK," he said.
Currently, the sounds that Sconnect using in the Wolfoo videos do not have any relation to the sounds mentioned in the UK lawsuit. Sconnect has all the original recordings, contracts and payment documents for hiring young talents to record dialogue and sound for the Wolfoo animated film. — VNS
