Photo Source: Pop Mart
Pop Mart, a leading Chinese toy company known for its popular Labubu brand, has secured a victory in a copyright infringement case against an online seller.
The judgment, issued by the People's Court of Yongkang City in Zhejiang Province and recently made public, concerns the unauthorized use of Pop Mart's Labubu Sports Series by an online store operated by XX Product Factory on the 1688.com platform. The court accepted the case on December 12, 2024.
In its claim, Pop Mart outlined that it was founded in 2010 and has since become a key player in the Chinese cultural and entertainment sector, specializing in trendy products, licensing derivatives, and organizing cultural exhibitions. Over the years, Pop Mart has built a comprehensive business model that includes artist cultivation, IP incubation, consumer engagement, and the promotion of trendy toy culture. The company went public on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in December 2020 and has cultivated a strong brand image through collaborations with designers, retail channels, and a robust supply chain.
Pop Mart legally owns the copyright to the Labubu Sports Series, a work completed on June 18, 2019, and registered with the National Copyright Administration in March 2020. The company published the Labubu design across various platforms—including its official website, online marketplaces, offline stores, and advertisements—leading to its widespread recognition and significant market value.
After discovering that XX Product Factory, operating on the 1688.com platform, had used its copyrighted Labubu artwork without permission, Pop Mart filed a lawsuit. This use constituted a breach of the Copyright Law of the People's Republic of China, infringing on Pop Mart's intellectual property and damaging its brand reputation and consumer rights.
Pop Mart requested that the court order XX Product Factory to immediately cease its use of the Labubu Sports Series, compensate the company for economic losses amounting to 50,000 RMB, and cover the costs of the legal proceedings.
Upon reviewing the evidence, the court found that the products sold by XX Product Factory bore substantial similarities to Pop Mart's copyrighted Labubu design, with only minor differences. The court concluded that XX Product Factory had violated Pop Mart's distribution and communication rights and should be held liable for halting the infringement and compensating Pop Mart for its losses. However, because Pop Mart could not provide sufficient evidence of actual losses or profits gained by XX Product Factory from the infringement, the court reduced the compensation amount to 10,000 RMB. This compensation accounted for the originality, popularity, and nature of the infringement, as well as the reasonable expenses incurred by Pop Mart to protect its rights.
While the 10,000 RMB compensation is modest compared to the auction price of Labubu collectibles—one such item fetched 1.08 million RMB at a Spring Auction in June 2025—the case underscores Pop Mart’s unwavering commitment to protecting its intellectual property.
Pop Mart has a long history of actively addressing counterfeiters and infringers. As early as 2017, the company uncovered that sellers on platforms like Taobao and WeChat were distributing counterfeit Molly, Labubu, and Yoki products. In August 2018, Pop Mart filed a lawsuit against these infringers. Initially, the company sought compensation of 10 million RMB but later reduced the claim to 3.8 million RMB. The court ultimately awarded 650,000 RMB in damages to Pop Mart. Another critical aspect of the case involved a patent dispute. Pop Mart challenged two design patents filed by the defendants, and ultimately, the China National Intellectual Property Administration ruled that both patents were invalid, citing prior screenshot from a 2017 Weibo post by the author of the Labubu design, Long Jiasheng.
Currently, Pop Mart continues to actively safeguard its intellectual property both domestically and internationally. According to relevant statistics, the company has registered more than 70 copyrights for Labubu and filed nearly 2,200 trademarks in China. Through its subsidiary, POP MART (SINGAPORE) HOLDING PTE. LTD., Pop Mart has also submitted international trademark applications via the Madrid System, focusing on key markets such as the United States, the United Kingdom, the European Union, and Southeast Asia.
