Vietnam’s SConnect says UK court ruling will not affect Wolfoo brand, future

SConnect CEO Ta Manh Hoang told Tuoi Tre (Youth) online newspaper that the ruling by the High Court in London concerned “some past infringements involving audio recordings and images” and represented only a small aspect of Wolfoo’s overall development and copyright strategy.

“The latest ruling only concerns some past infringements involving audio recordings and images, and does not affect Wolfoo’s system, brand or future,” Hoang said.

The High Court in London previously ordered SConnect to remove all Wolfoo videos worldwide over copyright infringement involving Peppa Pig, a popular British animated series owned by U.S. entertainment company Hasbro.

Under the ruling, all Wolfoo videos would have to be removed from online platforms, including YouTube, YouTube Kids, and the official Wolfoo World website, by 4:00 pm on August 3, UK time, or 10:00 pm the same day in Vietnam.

Hoang said that the ruling concerned older content, while newer Wolfoo content was being developed under stricter standards.

“SConnect has prepared itself and has plans to deal with everything,” he said.

He said the case had provided important lessons for SConnect and Vietnamese creative companies in general.

“Companies need to build a strong and systematic legal foundation from the beginning of any project,” Hoang said.

They should carefully review copyright risks from the early stages of development through completion to prevent competitors from exploiting legal loopholes, he said.

Companies should also know which “battles” are worth pursuing and avoid falling into an opponent’s strategic traps, according to Hoang.

Although SConnect lost the legal battle in the UK, Hoang said the company had demonstrated that a Vietnamese creative company could challenge major global entertainment groups with long-established legal resources.

“Winning or losing is sometimes only the appearance,” he said. “SConnect lost legally, but we also won in many other respects.”

Hoang said Hasbro, the U.S. entertainment giant that owns Peppa Pig, had also suffered losses in its efforts to restrain Wolfoo’s development.

“They are just trying every way to restrain Wolfoo’s development and affect its position. In reality, they have also suffered and made significant sacrifices,” he said.

Hoang defended SConnect’s decision to fight the case in the UK.

SConnect had sought to have the case transferred to Vietnam, arguing that its content targeted audiences in Vietnam and the United States.

The UK court rejected the argument, finding that advertising targeting viewers in the UK, combined with the lack of geographic restrictions blocking UK users, was sufficient to establish the kingdom as an appropriate forum for the case.

SConnect had also argued that the order to remove Wolfoo videos was overly broad and should apply only to the videos examined by the court.

Hoang said SConnect had been required to participate in the proceedings because failing to do so would have resulted in a default judgment against the company.

The court had previously ruled that SConnect infringed copyright by using short audio clips from Peppa Pig and her family, including exclamations such as “Hooray!”

Hasbro and Astley Baker Davies, the London-based studio behind the Peppa Pig animated series, sued SConnect in London in 2022 over copyright infringement involving the clips.

The court found that the copying had occurred “on a large scale” and “over an extended period” so it ordered SConnect to remove Wolfoo videos from online platforms worldwide, including YouTube.

SConnect must now comply with the ruling by removing infringing Wolfoo videos from YouTube and other online platforms and discontinuing its older content libraries, Hoang said.

Andrew Lee, a partner and head of intellectual property at Brandsmiths, the law firm representing Hasbro, told BBC News that the ruling was "significant."

Peppa Pig has a presence in hundreds of countries, and Wolfoo’s scale made the dispute a major issue for the brand, he said.

Lee said that by bringing the case before UK courts, where Hasbro is based, and because SConnect had activities in the UK despite being based in Vietnam, Hasbro had persuaded the court to consider the case on a broader basis.

This allowed Hasbro to protect the Peppa Pig brand through a single legal forum rather than having to file separate lawsuits in individual countries, he said.

Lee reiterated that the court had found the copying to have occurred "on a large scale" and "over an extended period," and had described the evidence of audio-copying as compelling.

He said the court had ordered all Wolfoo videos to be removed from online platforms worldwide.

The order applied to all 166 WTO member countries, including the United States and Vietnam, rather than being limited to the UK or the European Union.

Peppa Pig is one of the world’s most successful and popular children’s animation franchises. It is broadcast in 180 countries and generates more than US$1 billion in annual revenue.

Wolfoo has also grown into a major online children’s content brand.

At its peak, it surpassed two billion monthly YouTube views, exceeding Peppa Pig’s monthly viewership.