May 30, 2016
Walt Disney Co. said it’s prepared to take action to protect its intellectual property rights after performers dressed as Snow White and Captain America, as well as stuffed animals that resembled Kung Fu Panda, were featured at Dalian Wanda Group Co.’s new theme park in China.
May 30, 2016
Walt Disney Co. said it’s prepared to take action to protect its intellectual property rights after performers dressed as Snow White and Captain America, as well as stuffed animals that resembled Kung Fu Panda, were featured at Dalian Wanda Group Co.’s new theme park in China.
Performers show up at the Wanda City park dressed as Marvel's Captain America and Disney's Snow White.
“We vigorously protect our intellectual property and will take action to address infringement,” the company said in an e-mail statement Monday in response to Bloomberg News queries about the characters, who resembled the Disney ones, were on display at a Wanda theme park over the weekend. “Our characters and stories have delighted generations; these illegal and substandard imitations unfortunately disappoint all who expect more.”
Billionaire Wang Jianlin on Saturday officially opened the Wanda City park in Nanchang, the first of his conglomerate’s 15 planned theme park and entertainment projects in China that it hopes will help it unseat Disney as the world’s largest tourism operator. Just over a week ago, Wang publicly challenged the Burbank, California company, saying that Disney’s “one tiger is no match for a pack of wolves.”
“The non-Wanda characters were operated by individual stores within Wanda Mall. They do not represent Wanda,” Wanda said in an earlier statement.
The Wanda Cultural Tourism City, spanning 2 square kilometers (200 hectares) in southeastern Jiangxi province, features a theme park, a movie park, an aquarium, hotels and retail stores, according to the company. Wanda said expects the complex to attract 10 million people a year.
Courtesy: Bloomberg
