On 16 September 2013, Guangdong Alpha Animation and Culture Inc, (Alpha Animation) entered into an agreement with Imagi International Holdings Limited (Imagi)，a listed company on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange，to acquire the entire share capital of Imagi's subsidiary company for an aggregate consideration of 634,200,000 HK$ in cash; Alpha Animation also purchased 100% of the equity interest of Creative Power Entertaining Limited Liability Company (CPE) with 36,396,000 yuan to acquire the trademarks and copyrights related to cartoon images of the Pleasant Goat.

Alpha Animation made a big move in original cartoon industry by acquiring the Pleasant Goat which showed that Alpha Animation paid great attention to the IPR. As one of the most competitive  company in animation industry of China, Alpha Animation obtained excellent capability in animation image operation and industry channels.

IPR management in Animation

The operation in the Pleasant Goat IPR drew widely attention among the public. CPE and Disney entered into an equity transfer agreement on trademark in 2010. The two sides reached a three-year distribution deal with The Walt Disney Studios Motion Picture to distribute popular movie Chinese animation series Pleasant Goat and Big Bad Wolf on October 18, 2010. Disney would also retain the rights of all brands and products original of the cartoon and the film was broadcast to 52 Asia-Pacific countries and areas via Disney's broadcasting channels.

Board secretary of Alpha Animation Zheng Kedong said,"Alpha Animation and Pleasant Goat show the two different animation industry development models. Alpha Animation has obvious advantage in manufacturing and business operation and  ‘Pleasant Goat' is stressing at brand. We should capitalize on its popular brands and content production team to enhance our brand and culture creativity ."

Alpha's path of innovation development

"It took ten year for Aodi to focus on innovation and development in toys industry from 1993 to 2003, then spending the next ten years on transformation and upgrading," Cai Xiaodong, Alpha Animation vice-president said.

Aodi toys, the Alpha Animation's predecessor body, was established in 1993 and earned the first bucket of gold by running toy car. Unlike most toymaker-entrepeise, Aodi started gradually introducing Japanese animation copyright into China to drive sales in 2000. Culturalization makes Aodi stand out from the crowd. However, because of the lack of new product, Alpha Animation fell into the unprecedented low ebb in 2004. In the same year, Alpha Animation began to turn to focus on animation and comic product sales and constitute animation and comic chain which led Alpha Animation to the road of rapid and healthy development.

In ten years, Alpha Animation has accumulated abundant IPR reserves, as of the end of 2012, Alpha Animation  had filed 1,889 patent applications and obtained 1,774 ones from home, filed 80 patent applications and obtained 59 ones from abroad; applied for 3404 trademarks and registered 2,517 ones from home, applied for 442  trademarks and registered 384 ones from abroad; filed 2,388 copyright registration. "Alpha Animation pays more attention to the original works and now has established stable relationship with more than ten domestic animation enterprises to cooperate in industrialization. Alpha Animation has outstanding market operation ability and profit model to build a platform to accomplish the industrialization of original works ." Cai stressed.

(China IP News)