Wolfoo, the animated film about a cute wolf living with its family members on a hill in a small American Village, produced by Vietnam’s Sconnect, has become increasingly famous in China and favored by Chinese children. Copyright infringement was committed by many content distributors.

On April 1, 2022, Leadjoy Shanghai and Sconnect Vietnam signed a contract on animated film distribution licensing, under which Sconnect authorized Leadjoy to distribute ‘Wolfoo Channel’ in China on digital platforms, including Tencent, Youku and iQiyi. One hundred episodes of the film, lasting three minutes for each episode, will be broadcast in China within three years.

The contract signed by Leadjoy and Sconnect showed that Sconnect granted the ‘intellectual property right protection’ to Leadjoy, which meant that Leadjoy had the right to represent Sconnect to deal with activities related to intellectual property rights and Wolfoo brand protection in China.

Soon after the business cooperation contract was signed, Leadjoy conducted legal actions to handle the infringing of the copyright of Wolfoo videos and Wolfoo brand in the Chinese market. 

Leadjoy discovered a copyright breach committed by Wuwei Fenglingdu which, since mid-2021, has used the user name ‘Baby Xiadu’ to distribute animated films with the title ‘Wolfoo’ on Youku and Tencent Video.

The films have content that is exactly the same as ‘Wolfoo Channel’ and the only difference between them was that the films were dubbed in Chinese. The behavior by Wuwei Fenglingdu seriously breached Leadjoy and Sconnect’s copyrights.

Since April 13, 2022, Wuwei Fenglingdu has distributed 682 ‘Wolfoo’ episodes on Youku and the film ranks third on Youku’s list of popular animated films for children and a list of films for child education.

Meanwhile, 578 episodes of ‘Wolfoo’ have been posted on Tencent Video, attracting 650 million views.

After discovering the copyright infringement committed by Wuwei Fenglingdu, Leadjoy contacted the legal representative of the company, requesting to eliminate all the videos posted by the violators and claimed damages. But the claim was rejected by Wuwei Fenglingdu.

In late April 2022, Youku and Tencent Video removed Wolfoo episodes posted by Wuwei Fenglingdu because of the copyright infringement. However, later, the company posted more episodes on Tencent Video.

Leadjoy authorized Jinmao Shanghai, a law firm, to file a copyright infringement lawsuit against Wuwei Fenglingdu. The company admitted the breach, but cited financial problems to delay compensation.

After many reconciliations at court, Wuwei Fenglingdu accepted to pay compensation of 400,000 yuan, or VND1.3 billion, to Leadjoy for the copyright breach.

Trong Dat