Andy Lau takes on duck shop owner
Hong Kong 'heavenly king' Andy Lau slammed for bullying an elderly man in Sichuan, China
Sun, May 09, 2010
The Daily Chilli
Hong Kong 'heavenly king' Andy Lau has been slammed for bullying an elderly man in Sichuan, China.
The 68-year-old man, who owns a restaurant in Chongzhou, Sichuan, is named Liu Dehua.
His name in Chinese is the same as that of the singer which was why he almost lost his trademark - the Authentic Liu Dehua Pressed Salted Duck Shop.
Last week, Lau's agent in China had issued a letter to the restaurant owner for alleged infringement of copyright and defamation of Andy Lau.
The letter also called on Liu to remove the restaurant signage which has the words 'Liu De Hua'.
This triggered much anger among the locals, especially regular customers of the restaurant that has been in business for 30 years.
Liu started his business in 1980 when Lau was still using his given name of Lau Fook-wing.
Pressed Salted Duck is a specialty in Sichuan and in the small town of Chongzhou alone, there are more than 10 restaurants selling this delicacy.
All the shops are named after their owners.
Liu's daughter had in an interview with Xinhua Agency said that her father was much saddened by the letter's contents.
"My father opened this shop in 1980 using his own name. It has got nothing to do with Andy Lau.
"We have no intention to make use of Andy's name to attract more business," she said.
The intellectual property rights firm entrusted by Lau's company to supervise the trademark issue had on Friday issued a statement to say that they had withdrawn the case against the duck shop.