The logo shows a man in a yellow long-sleeved top, poised in what looks very much like Bruce Lee’s famous “ready to strike” pose. For 15 years it has hung over Real Kungfu restaurants in China. Now Lee’s daughter wants it gone, and wants more than 210 million yuan ($30 million) for it.
Bruce Lee Enterprises, a California-based firm headed by Shannon Lee, sued the chain in a Shanghai court in late December 2019, Chinese media outlet The Paper reported. Sixth Tone, citing Sina Entertainment, said the defendant is Guangzhou Kung Fu Fast Food Chain Management Co. Ltd., and that the court accepted the case.
What Lee is asking for
Beyond the compensation, the company asked the court to make the chain stop using the image and pay an additional 88,000 yuan in legal expenses. It also wants Real Kungfu to run clarifications for 90 days saying it has nothing to do with Bruce Lee.
Bruce Lee Enterprises says it is the exclusive owner of all commercial merchandising and allied rights tied to the martial arts star, including his name, image, logos and photographs.
Real Kungfu was founded in 1990 and sells rice bowls with Chinese dishes. It has outlets in more than 57 Chinese cities and is based in Guangzhou.
The chain’s answer
On its Weibo account on Thursday, Real Kungfu said it was “puzzled.” It said its use of the logo was approved by national authorities, though it acknowledged that some issues had come up in the past.
A fuller statement, quoted by Sixth Tone, said: “There were disputes many years ago over whether our trademark constitutes infringement, but our trademark has never been determined to be an infringement. We are also very puzzled about being sued after so many years and are actively analyzing the case to respond to the lawsuit.” Sixth Tone said repeated calls to the chain went unanswered. The law office representing Bruce Lee Enterprises told the outlet it was not giving media interviews.
Old grievances
This is not the first clash. In 2010, according to domestic media reports, Shannon Lee accused the chain of copyright infringement and said she would set up a rights-protection office in China to guard her father’s image. This year she also complained to China’s National Film Administration about his depiction in Quentin Tarantino’s “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood,” which was not released on the Chinese mainland.
Celebrities have struggled to defend their rights in China before. Michael Jordan sued a China-based sportswear company in 2012 over a name and logo similar to his Nike-produced brand. In late 2016 the Supreme People’s Court ordered the company to stop using the Chinese characters for his name on its merchandise, but ruled that the phonetic spelling was not infringement in China.
The case arrives as China has pledged better protection for intellectual property rights and stiffer penalties, one of the key topics in Beijing’s trade dispute with the United States.
Sources
- Bruce Lee's daughter sues Chinese fast food chain for using late kungfu master's image | Dunya News
- Bruce Lee’s Daughter Sues Fast-Food Chain Over Copyright
