Cosmetic Industry Chaos Behind "HOLD LIVE Plagiarism”
- Chaileedo Press
- Sep 19, 2022
- 2 min read
There is no future for plagiarism.
Recently, the local Chinese brand Flower Knows, which is positioned as a makeup brand for girls, has released news that it has received 300,000 yuan ($42,800) compensation from the infringing party HOLD LIVE.
To recap the event, on December 4, 2020, Flower Knows announced on its official Weibo account that "HOLD LIVE allegedly plagiarized the appearance of Flower Knows's product design" and sent a lawyer's letter to four related companies.
After nearly 2 years of rights defense, Flower Knows recently reached a mediation with all parties.
It is reported that the number of HOLD LIVE Tmall flagship store goods is about 80 products, of which the highest sales of products for HOLD LIVE is the Lasting Air Lip Glaze, and the total sales have been more than 900,000 units. Up to now, the HOLD LIVE Tmall flagship store has 3.023 million fans. In addition, there are more than 10,000 notes about HOLD LIVE on Xiaohongshu.
From the data of sales and fans, HOLD LIVE has become famous in China, but in the eyes of outsiders, the brand started by "plagiarism".
As early as 2019, it was accused of plagiarizing several brands, including YES！IC, Urban Decay, DEAR DAHLA, and so on. From lipsticks to eyeshadows, and package to eyeshadow colorways, the degree of similarity is extremely high.
In the past two years, China's new makeup brands have become popular, and HOLD LIVE's imitation objects have become Flower Knows and Perfect Diary. Before Flower Knows, it was accused of plagiarizing Perfect Diary, causing its brand and OEM to be fined 500,000 yuan ($71,400) and 100,000 yuan ($14,300) respectively by the Guangzhou Administration for Market Regulation.
In response to this phenomenon, CHAILEEDO has sorted out four types of plagiarism in the Chinese cosmetics industry.
First, major international brands are frequently plagiarized. For example, Dior, Chanel, L'Oréal, and Estée Lauder have been plagiarized for years, and even targeted by counterfeiters.
Second, new Chinese brands are plagiarized by Chinese white brands (goods produced by small manufacturers without a brand name), such as the above-mentioned HOLD LIVE plagiarizing Perfect Diary and Flower Knows one after another.
Third, overseas niche brands are plagiarized by Chinese white brands.
Fourth, overseas brands copied from Chinese brands. For example, Florasis concentric lock lipstick was previously suspected to be copied by Japanese companies. And Chinese beauty brand Color Zone's Frisbee series product appearance design was copied by overseas brands r.e.m. beauty, etc.
In this regard, brands have taken up legal weapons to combat infringement and safeguard their brand image and reputation.
Meanwhile, China's protection of intellectual property rights is getting stronger and stronger. The newly amended the Patent Law of the People's Republic of China has raised the upper limit of compensation to 5 million yuan ($713,500) and the lower limit to 30,000 yuan ($4300).
Moreover, as consumers become more professional and sensible, an increasing number of consumers are taking the initiative to help companies "fight counterfeiting" and provide clues, etc.
In recent years, both the state and enterprises, the brand building is gradually heating up, and the plan of China's "strong brand" is becoming clearer. There is no future for copycat products that run counter to this.
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