The chairman of Jinmailang announced the discontinuation of the "Handmade" trademark, and production of related products has ceased as of today.

Questioning AI · The frequent “sly trademark” marketing practice: how can the food industry regulate promotional behavior?

Recently, Jinmailang’s “Hand-Tossed Noodles” has sparked controversy.

On April 1, Jinmailang Group’s founder and chairman Fan Xianguo released a video saying, “The ‘Hand-Tossed’ trademark was registered in 2006, and we’ve been using it for 20 years. To avoid causing confusion for everyone regarding product descriptions, we have decided to stop using the ‘Hand-Tossed’ trademark. Starting from the early hours of April 2, we will immediately cease production of all products bearing the ‘Hand-Tossed’ trademark.”

On the morning of April 2, a reporter from Jiemian News searched for products related to the “Hand-Tossed” trademark on Jinmailang’s Tmall flagship store and found no results. The store’s customer service said that there are currently no related products.

On March 30, according to Nanjing Zero Distance, after Nanjing consumer Mr. Chen recently bought Jinmailang’s “Hand-Tossed Rice Noodles,” he questioned the product promotion because he did not find the noodles to have a handmade taste. Jinmailang responded that “Hand-Tossed” is only a registered trademark and is not related to handmade craftsmanship.

According to consumer reports, on the packaging of this Jinmailang noodle product, the four Chinese characters “Hand-Tossed Rice Noodles” are prominently displayed, and next to them is the promotional line “Looks like Mom’s Hand-Tossed Noodles,” which can easily lead consumers to associate “Hand-Tossed” with traditional handmade production techniques. However, on the packaging, the “Hand-Tossed” characters have a small-font note in the upper-right corner indicating the trademark ® symbol. Jinmailang staff then responded to the media that “noodles are industrial products produced on production lines, and ‘Hand-Tossed’ is just a name.”

Data from Tianyancha’s intellectual property information shows that between 2004 and 2023, Jinmailang Food Co., Ltd. gradually registered multiple trademarks containing the word “Hand-Tossed,” which fall under the convenience food series.

As early as 2018, according to the China Consumer News, consumer Xu Gang purchased “Jinmailang, Hualong series Hand-Tossed Noodles” products from Hanyang Branch of Wuhan Hanfu Supermarket Co., Ltd., totaling 1,121.1 yuan. Later, on the grounds that the noodles in the purchased products were ordinary mechanized noodles rather than hand-made noodles, he filed a lawsuit in court. Ultimately, the court found that the product labeling violated the Food Safety Law, ordered the merchant to “refund and pay ten times compensation,” and required the merchant to compensate the consumer more than 11,000 yuan.

In fact, the controversy surrounding Jinmailang’s “Hand-Tossed Rice Noodles” is not an isolated case. The phenomenon of “sly trademarks” in the consumer space occurs frequently. Previously, on the packaging of Baixiang’s “mostly bag noodles” and “mostly bucket noodles” series, the word “mostly” was shown as a registered trademark; on the back label of Pantene’s “Three-Minute Miracle” shampoo, the company used small print to indicate that “Three-Minute Miracle” is a registered trademark, and the product name was not an efficacy claim—yet it still drew intense public discussion.

At the legal level, the Trademark Law clearly stipulates that signs that are deceptive or likely to cause the public to misidentify characteristics such as the quality of goods may not be used as trademarks; even if registered, their use must also follow the principle of good faith. The Measures for the Supervision and Administration of Food Labeling require that food labels must not deceive or mislead consumers, and that prepackaged food labels should include names that reflect the true attributes.