You Steal My Tank (copyright law/reproduce/cake/chocolate)

You Steal My Tank (copyright law/reproduce/cake/chocolate)

Li Dongtao

Description: chocolate can be used for copyright infringement.

The Facts.

She asked me if I could steal her soul,

I told her if I did I would never let it go.¹ 

This is a case about “steal”.

The plaintiff is an animation company in China

The defendant is a cake shop in Beijing. 

Super Tank is a popular animation work produced by the plaintiff, loved by Children. 

Based on the Starring Super Tank in this animation, the plaintiff also designed toys and got another market success quickly. LDT

Children love birthday cakes.

So many cake shops in Beijing, how to attract them? 

The defendant quickly solved the problem in a special way: put a tiny Starring Super Tank on every Children’s birthday cake it sold, a chocolate tank, as a decoration. 

Then the defendant also got a market success quickly.

The plaintiff sued the defendant for copyright infringement.

The defendant argued that the copyright infringement was not established because the character of the tank was in the public domain and it could be made of chocolate.

Analysis

The copyright infringement is established.

The plaintiff’s Super Tank is an actor, the Starring in the animation, so it is not a common tank, not in the public domain. As the producer, the plaintiff is the copyright owner.

And, this original creation couldn’t be altered because of the use of chocolate.

Without the plaintiff’s permission, the defendant couldn’t put this tank on the cakes it made.

In short, the Super Tank (the plaintiff’s work)，not the soul, was stolen（reproduced）by the defendant.

Copyright registration

In this case, the plaintiff registered the animation character as a toy, fine art.

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