Chinese authorities are currently battling on the side of the viral sensation ‘Labubu’ dolls by cracking down on counterfeit dolls, known commonly as ‘Lafufu’. The ‘Labubu’ is an elf-like doll that has surged in popularity following the emergence of Pop Mart, the retailer that exclusively sells ‘Labubu’ dolls internationally.
With this exponential increase in global demand for the dolls, the Chinese press and government have revelled in the shift in perception towards goods made in China, which has a long-standing reputation for black-market vendors selling counterfeit luxury goods. This also extends to the manufacture of the ‘Lafufu’, counterfeit ‘Labubu’ dolls that have lower or equivalent sale prices but a significantly lower cost of labour and greater availability.
Pop Mart creates value for their products not only through popularity but also through scarcity, and the readily available ‘Lafufu’ has forced Chinese authorities to crack down on the underground counterfeit operations, with a reported 200,000 allegedly infringing articles having been intercepted in the city of Ningbo alone.
With Pop Mart’s ‘Labubu’ success story making headlines across China and worldwide, authorities continue to pursue counterfeits in order to protect the retailer’s intellectual property rights and, by extension, the nation’s reputation as a “strong manufacturing base with creative innovation”, as reported by the Chinese Communist Party’s news outlet ‘People’s Daily’. Pop Mart are currently taking a firm stance in the Chinese courts, with one recent ruling awarding the retailer damages of 10,000 renminbi (around £1,000) after a defendant was found to be selling 3D printed replicas of ‘Labubu’ without permission.
The ‘Lafufu’ debacle demonstrates the importance of taking a proactive approach to the protection of your IP, as Pop Mart appear to be doing in China. Whether they will successfully clamp down on sales of the ‘Lafufu’ dolls remains to be seen, though they have enjoyed some early success.
If you have any questions on the above, please do not hesitate to contact the team at McDaniels Law on 0191 281 4000 or legal@mcdanielslaw.com.
