The animated character set Wolfoo is produced at Sconnect Vietnam's studio. Photo courtesy of the firm

HÀ NỘI — Sconnect Vietnam, owners of the animated show Wolfoo, has taken drastic actions to protect Wolfoo's interests and does not rule suing Peppa Pig's owners in the US Court.

Recently, many leading British and American newspapers have reported on the new development of the copyright war between two sets of cartoon characters, Wolfoo and Peppa Pig.

According to the London Daily Post, Sconnect Media LLC (authorised by Sconnect Vietnam) is reviewing legal procedures to protect Wolfoo's interests in the US. Tạ Mạnh Hoàng is the owner representative of Sconnect Việt Nam and Sconnect Media LLC (the US).

Sconnect Vietnam is the owner of Wolfoo, while Entertainment ONE UK LTD (EO/eOne) is the owner of Peppa Pig. 

Since the start of the year, the two have filed lawsuits against each other in the Russian Federation, the UK and Việt Nam, due to an intellectual property right dispute between Wolfoo and Peppa Pig. 

The cause was that eOne sued Sconnect in courts in Russia and the UK as: "The Wolfoo character set is a remake of the Peppa Pig character set".

They also repeatedly hit the Wolfoo copyright on YouTube, resulting in millions of dollars in damage to Sconnect. 

After copyrighting Wolfoo on YouTube and Facebook, eOne continues to copyright the Wolfoo channel on TikTok and complain about Wolfoo Game copyright in Apple Store, even though Wolfoo Game is a product unrelated to the dispute. However, the copyright claim of eOne was not accepted by TikTok and Apple. 

Last month, Việt Nam Digital Communications Association (VDCA) requested YouTube to ensure the fairness of business rights between Vietnamese and British companies.

TechTimes quoted Nguyễn Xuân Cường, Vice President of VDCA, said: "If Wolfoo's videos are locked due to being sued in Britain, then Peppa Pig videos in this case in Việt Nam should be locked by YouTube as well".

"Sconnect should take action immediately to protect the benefits of Wolfoo in the US business market," he added. 

Earlier in July, Sconnect won the case filed by eOne in Moscow City. The court closed the case and prevented eOne from filing similar lawsuits against Sconnect in the future.

Despite this victory, YouTube approved eOne's request to remove Wolfoo from the platfrom. Not allowing Wolfoo to upload new content caused Wolfoo's monthly views to drop by more than 60 per cent, causing massive damage to subscriber rates, business reputation, and a drop in revenue. 

Although Sconnect made every effort to provide a complete claim file and asked the decision of the Moscow Court to be respected, YouTube did not consider Sconnect's appeal. 

In January, eOne again filed a lawsuit against Sconnect in the UK, but the court in this country still needs to accept the case.

On October 24, in a self-declaration at the London Court (the UK), eOne testified that: "YouTube is very supportive in removing Wolfoo videos. eOne requests the courts in the UK to ban Wolfoo from appearing on the YouTube platform." 

However, at the latest hearing on November 3, the London Court has yet to issue any ruling. Up to now, eOne's lawsuit in the UK has not been accepted by the court and has no legal value.

So far, the dispute between the two sides has not had any court declaring Wolfoo copyright infringement; no court has ordered any restraints or restrictions on Wolfoo. 

But, Việt Nam's cartoon system has been severely damaged on YouTube because three diamond channels and three other channels with millions of subscribers were blocked by YouTube from uploading new videos. 

Not only is the view declining, Wolfoo is also at risk that users will leaving the channel if it continues to be unable to upload new content. 

Wolfoo animated videos (about 2,700 episodes) are translated into 17 languages and broadcast on many platforms such as YouTube, Facebook, Tiktok; television platforms and online platforms of many other countries around the world. Wolfoo has registered trademarks and copyrights in the United States, Russia, Việt Nam and many other countries. VNS