IPC Court finds Taiwanese celebrity’s “Baiwei Little Tiger” co-branded apparel infringes Chinese IP “I Am Not Fat Tiger”

　The IPC Court in its first retrial found that the co-branded apparel, “Baiwei Little Tiger” (Chinese: 百威小老虎; hereinafter the “Baiwei Little Tiger apparel”) launched by the Taiwanese celebrity, HSU Yun-Le (hereinafter “Hsu”) in 2021 indeed infringed the Chinese IP, “I Am Not Fat Tiger” (Chinese: 我不是胖虎; hereafter the “Chinese IP”).  After nearly five years of litigation, the IPC Court ruled that the defendants should severally and jointly pay TWD400,000 in damages, along with accrued interest and litigation expenses, and should destroy all infringing merchandise.  

　According to the IPC Court’s ruling, the design of the Baiwei Little Tiger apparel was strikingly similar to that of the Chinese IP with merely minor alterations, and therefore, the Baiwei Little Tiger apparel does not constitute an independent creation.  In addition, given the widespread popularity of the Chinese IP, its design had long been publicly available, and in this regard, a business engaged in developing and marketing co-branded apparel products could not reasonably claim to have been unaware of the design.  In view of the foregoing, the IPC Court sustained the offense of plagiarism alleged against the defendants.  

　The IPC Court rejected Hsu’ defense that the design of the Baiwei Little Tiger apparel was inspired by a cat and also found that the draft sketches submitted as evidence were not sufficient.  The sketches failed to demonstrate the time of creation and the records of alterations and thus failed to establish the process of creation.  Moreover, the overall visual appearance of the Baiwei Little Tiger apparel extremely resembled that of the Chinese IP.  Based on the foregoing holding, the IPC Court finally determined that Hsu and the defendant, Migo-mobo International Ltd., should severally and jointly pay TWD400,000 in damages, and Migo-mobo International Ltd. and its responsible person, LIAO Hsin-Hung were also held jointly and severally liable for an additional TWD400,000, together with interest thereof.  In addition, the infringing products should be all destroyed and the defendants are prohibited from using the infringing design in the future.  (Released 2026.05.19)  
/CCS