Ryohin Keikaku, the company that runs the Muji chain of household goods stores, is refusing to back down from a long trademark battle in China — a fight that looks unlikely to be its last.
On Nov. 1, the Japanese company’s Chinese-language website declared it will continue to use the Muji name in China despite a legal challenge over the trademark by a local company. This followed inaccurate reports in the Chinese media that the Japanese retailer had paid a penalty to the Chinese plaintiff. Ryohin Keikaku stressed that “the lawsuit is still ongoing.”
When Ryohin Keikaku entered China in 2005, it secured local trademark rights for “Mujirushi Ryohin” in four Chinese characters, pronounced as “Wuyinliangpin” in Mandarin and meaning “no brand, quality goods.” The company also registered its international brand name “MUJI,” in block letters.
The retail group locked in the trademarks for most of its products, and China has since become its largest market outside Japan.
One problem: A Chinese company snagged the brand name rights for certain woven fabric products, including bedcovers and towels. This company later transferred the rights to an entity called Beijing Cottonfield Textile. When Ryohin Keikaku began selling Muji-branded bedcovers and towels, Beijing Cottonfield Textile filed the lawsuit.
On Christmas Day in 2017, the intellectual property court in Beijing ruled in the plaintiff’s favor. Ryohin Keikaku is now appealing that decision.
At the same time, Ryohin Keikaku laments the growing number of stores in China that mimic both the products and interior design of real Muji outlets, and is threatening legal action of its own.
Closing its Nov. 1 statement with a strong warning, Ryohin Keikaku said, “We will do our utmost to stop counterfeit outlets and products by other companies.”
Even the Beijing Youth Daily, a mouthpiece newspaper of the capital’s Communist Youth League, acknowledged the origins of Muji’s minimalist concept in a Nov. 4 story on the ongoing lawsuit, writing, “When we speak of ‘Wuyinliangpin,’ people think of a simple and plainly designed long-standing Japanese brand.”
In October, Ryohin Keikaku President Satoru Matsuzaki told the Nikkei Forum in Bangkok that the basic ideas that define the brand include a “simple and pleasant lifestyle” and an “anti-luxury, anti-cheap” attitude. But while Muji’s “simple and refined” products are gaining popularity in Asia, their unembellished appearance means they are relatively easy to copy.
Miniso Industries, operator of MINISO stores, has adopted a similar strategy to that of Muji by selling what it bills as Japanese-designed “simple, natural and high-quality” household products in more than 1,000 stores. MINISO is a brand co-founded by Chinese and Japanese designers, according to the company’s website. Matsuzaki has dismissed the idea that Miniso poses a threat to Muji, saying it is “something completely different from us.”
Some Chinese consumers would disagree.
“I find their qualities not that different. I can tell that Miniso is trying to imitate Muji in terms of design, but it’s cheaper and pretty good quality,” said a man who identified himself as Du, who was buying facial cream at a Miniso outlet in Shanghai.
Zhou Yimin, an 18-year-old woman in the city, sees more of a gap between the two. “I admit that some products in Miniso are similar to Muji but their qualities are very different,” she said. “I buy in Miniso things I don’t expect to use for a long time.”
Either way, Miniso’s robust growth and the trademark litigation can both be taken as signs that Muji faces more years of wrangling with various imitators.
Ryohin Keikaku started in 1980 as a private label of the Seiyu Japanese supermarket chain, which is now owned by Walmart.
