Andy Lau vs salted duck seller dispute resolved


BEIJING : Hong Kong superstar Andy Lau's management company, Topman Global Limited, released a statement Friday clarifying that it did not bring a law suit against 66-year-old Liu De Hua, the owner of the "Authentic Liu De Hua Pressed Salted Duck Shop" in Chongzhou, in China's Sichuan Province.

Along with an apology for causing any misunderstanding, the statement also said that Topman Global "only wished to prevent impersonation and confusion" and did not intend "to interfere in people using their own names or registering trademarks".

Lau's management company had earlier disputed Liu's application to register his shop's name, which contained the words 'Liu De Hua' - Lau's Mandarin name - as a trademark.

The management company previously claimed that people might be led to believe that Lau was "linked in some way" to Liu's shop and place "undue trust in the quality and origins of the product".

It further noted that associating Lau's name with pressed salted duck, waxed meats and sausages not only amounted to copyright infringement but "insulted and defamed Lau".

Topman Global's dispute with the elderly Liu had raised the ire of his regular patrons as well as Chinese netizens, who slammed the firm for bullying a helpless old man.

Liu had been operating his pressed salted duck shop for over 30 years. His is among the ten shops in Chongzhou that sell the Sichuan specialty, all of which take the name of their owners.

According to Liu's mother, Liu's birth name was actually Liu Jian Hua but somehow became erroneously registered as Liu De Hua.

"This name (Liu De Hua) is too high profile and makes people feel we are not honest," adding that they had actually lost a lot of business because of the name.

Liu himself lamented that companies refused to hire him in his earlier years because of his showy name while many of his previous girlfriends tried to change it.

In populous China, numerous people share identical Mandarin names with celebrities.

Chinese police records showed that there are 17 people who share Edison Chen's name, seven who share Gillian Chung's name and 686 people named Liu De Hua in the Chinese city of Chongqing alone.

No comments:

Post a Comment