Recently, the case that Shadow Jianghu Culture (Beijing) Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Shadow Jianghu Company") represented by Beijing Renzhi Law Firm sued Shanghai Gongshoudao Sports Development Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Gongshoudao Company") for franchise dispute won. Shanghai Yangpu District People's Court found that the defendant Gongshoudao Company constituted a fundamental breach of contract. Our lawyers helped the Shadow Jianghu Company recover nearly 2 million yuan of economic losses.

　　Background of the case

　　"Gong Shou Dao" was born in the micro film "Gong Shou Dao" starring Ma Yun and supervised by Jet Li. On January 3, 2018, Alibaba Sports Co., Ltd., Taiji Zen International Culture Development Co., Ltd. and other entities jointly established Gongshoudao Company to operate the "Gongshoudao" brand to promote Taiji culture.

　　In June 2019, the Shadow Jianghu Company and Gongshoudao Company signed the "Gongshoudao City Training Brand License and Regional Agency Agreement", which agreed that "Gongshoudao" is a new sports and cultural entertainment IP integrating competitive projects, cultural entertainment and related derivatives and services. Gongshoudao Company authorized the Shadow Jianghu Company to use the name "Gongshoudao" Brand and image, and as the regional agent of Gongshoudao Company, carry out the training business of Gongshoudao City for teenagers and adults; Gongshoudao Company provides brand publicity, operation guidance and training support to Shadow Jianghu Company, and provides teaching materials and training plans to Shadow Jianghu Company. After the agreement was signed, the shadow Jianghu company paid the contract price and credit deposit to Gongshoudao Company, but Gongshoudao Company has not provided relevant support and guidance to the shadow Jianghu company as agreed in the agreement. Later, the Shadow Jianghu Company sent a letter of termination to him and appealed to the court, requesting Gongshoudao Company to return the contract price and deposit and pay the interest on capital occupation.

　　Case dispute

　　During the trial, the court determined that there were three focuses of the case:

　　1、 Type of agreement involved in the case;

　　2、 Whether the defendant constitutes a fundamental breach of contract, and whether the agreement involved in the case can be rescinded;

　　3、 If the agreement involved in the case can be rescinded, the responsibility shall be borne after the rescission.

　　As for the first focus of dispute, the court believed that the agreement involved in the case essentially agreed that the plaintiff should accept the defendant's guidance and training in business, use the defendant's "meritorious and moral" authorized brand and teaching case, carry out business activities and pay consideration according to a certain business model, which conforms to the characteristics of franchising, and the contract type should be determined according to the rights and obligations agreed in the agreement. The court recognized the lawyer's agency opinion that the case related agreement belongs to franchise contract, and based on the fact that the case related agreement also agreed on franchising, cooperation, agency and other contents, it identified the case related agreement as a composite contract with multiple relationships. The confirmation of the nature of the contract as a composite contract is an important prerequisite for judging that Gongshoudao Company has not fulfilled its main contractual obligations and constitutes a fundamental breach of contract.

　　As for the second focus of dispute, the court held that one of the main purposes of the agreement between the plaintiff and the defendant was to use the defendant's "meritorious and ethical" business resources to conduct business. As a training project, the teaching plan is a necessary business resource. Therefore, providing the teaching plan is one of the defendant's main contractual obligations. Based on the evidence on the record, the defendant's behavior of failing to provide teaching materials and cases when the plaintiff sent the letter of termination two years after the signing of the agreement involved in the case constitutes a fundamental breach of contract. The court again adopted our lawyer's agency opinion that the defendant constituted a fundamental breach of contract, and held that the agreement involved in the case was terminated when the defendant received the plaintiff's letter of termination.

　　With regard to the third focus of dispute, the court decided that the defendant should return most of the contract price and the full amount of the deposit according to the time limit of the agreement involved in the case and the actual performance of the plaintiff and defendant, and supported the agency opinion of our lawyer on paying the interest on capital occupation.

　　Court judgement

　　In this case, a litigation team consisting of Xu Dasheng, Mu Xiangpeng and Jiang Hushan, lawyers from Beijing Renzhi Law Firm, carefully sorted out more than 60 pieces of evidence up to thousands of pages submitted by the defendant, clarified the basic facts and legal relations, studied the case ideas, and formulated a detailed litigation strategy; During the trial, the team lawyers conducted precise and powerful cross examination and rebuttal one by one on hundreds of pages of miscellaneous and irrelevant evidence submitted by the defendant and their various arguments. In the end, the people's court supported our claim, and the team of lawyers helped the Shadow Jianghu Company recover nearly 2 million yuan of economic losses.

　　　Lawyer team in this case

Xu Dasheng

Director of Beijing Renzhi Law Firm

　　Lawyer Xu Dasheng is currently the director of Beijing Intellectual Property Law Research Association, the vice president of the Internet Arbitration Court of Qingdao Arbitration Commission, and the deputy director of the Internet and High tech Research Association of Haidian District Lawyers Association of Beijing. Lawyer Xu Dasheng has been awarded the title of Excellent Lawyer of Haidian District and Outstanding Communist Party Member of Haidian Street for three consecutive years.

　　Lawyer Xu Dasheng has represented a number of cases with significant influence in the country, among which the Supreme People's Court accepted the "Korean Copyright Review and Mediation Commission Certification Qualification Dispute Case", the first successful retrial case in the history of China's information network communication rights trial, which effectively protected the legitimate rights and interests of Korean copyright owners in China. Lawyer Xu Dasheng has been interviewed by CCTV, Beijing TV, IT Business News, 3g portal, Legal Daily, Beijing News and other media for many times. His main works are Collection of Internet Finance Laws and Selected Cases.

Mu Xiangpeng

Patent Agent of Beijing Renzhi Law Firm

　　From 2007 to 2019, Mr. Mu Xiangpeng worked in the Mechanical Invention Examination Department and the Patent Reexamination Committee of the State Intellectual Property Office. He is now a lawyer of Beijing Renzhi Law Firm, a patent agent, a certified teacher of the State Intellectual Property Office, and a warehousing expert of Heilongjiang Intellectual Property Office. Lawyer Mu Xiangpeng has a strong theoretical level and practical ability in patent infringement litigation, patent retrieval, patent analysis, patent reexamination, patent invalidation, etc., and can provide a full set of patent legal agency and consulting services.

Jiang Hushan

Intern Lawyer of Beijing Renzhi Law Firm

　　Lawyer Jiang Hushan graduated from China University of Political Science and Law with a master's degree in law. He has passed the TEM-8 examination for English majors and is proficient in handling litigation and non litigation work in both Chinese and English. He has contributed many articles to the case base construction project of Ningbo and Shenzhen Nanshan District Overseas Intellectual Property Collaborative Service Platform.

　　Introduction to Longyuan Intellectual Property Group

　　Beijing Longyuan Zhixin Intellectual Property Service Group Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Longyuan Intellectual Property Group) was established in 2011. At present, Beijing Longyuan Tianheng Intellectual Property Agency Co., Ltd., Heilongjiang Longshiheng Intellectual Property Consulting Co., Ltd., Ningbo Longyuan Zhixin Intellectual Property Consulting Co., Ltd. and Zhejiang Junhe Intellectual Property Operation Service Co., Ltd. are core subsidiaries, Relying on the legal compliance business of Beijing Renzhi Law Firm and the intellectual property evaluation of Beijing Yuling Appraisal Consulting Co., Ltd., the whole chain of intellectual property legal service system is established. Among them, Longyuan Tianheng provides intellectual property agency services characterized by patent and trademark invalidity, review, overseas intellectual property layout and patent litigation based on high-quality intellectual property application and registration services; Longshi Heng and Ningbo Longyuan Zhixin Consulting mainly engage in consulting services featuring intellectual property management, consulting and project application; Longguan focuses on intellectual property operation and investment. At present, it has branches in Harbin, Wuhan, Changsha, Xi'an, Hefei, Ningbo, Foshan and Shenzhen, and liaison offices in Taipei, Seoul and Luxembourg.

　　In the past two years, the Group has achieved rapid development, made great achievements in the fields of high-value patent cultivation, intellectual property operation and patent dispute resolution, and has certain influence in the industry.

　　Longyuan Intellectual Property has been committed to improving the intellectual property protection and operation capabilities of innovation subjects, accelerating the transformation of innovation achievements, improving the core technology competitiveness of enterprises, and assisting the overall development of enterprises.