Trademarks, patents and copyright laws protect an idea from being copied.

In the UK a trademark can protect “brand identifiers” such as logos, names and slogans, giving the trademark holder exclusive rights to use them for their products or services as they are not automatically protected.

They are used by retailers, brands and even huge celebrities such as Taylor Swift and Katy Perry are known for filing trademark applications.

Back in April, Swift filled an application to trademark short voice clips and her image to protect it against AI misuse. And Katy Perry filled a trademark suit against Australian designer Katie Perry in 2009 for the use of her name. The court case came to a conclusion in 2026, where it was ruled that the designers mark was not in breach of trademark laws.

But celebrities are not the only only ones filing for trademark breaches- anyone remember when M&S took Aldi to court over its caterpillar cakes or when Thatcher’s took the budget retailer to court over the similarities between its ciders?

However, not every brand similarity ends in a lawsuit. The House of Mouse recently launched a collectible plushie that looks rather similar to a certain popular viral collectible figure we could name. And, it is worth reiterating that there isn’t any legal disputes for the similarities currently.

Labubu is an extremely popular brand and many other brands are trying to emulate that success by releasing products that are similar and in some cases outright identical.

Collectibles aren’t a new thing and Labubus are far from the only popular collectible on the market. From the Pop Funko’s of the 2010’s to Beanie Babies which were popular in the 1990s and early 2000s, every decade has its own craze. Labubus are just the most recent one.

So the brand couldn’t trademark itself based on that alone and Disney are far from the only brand to have created a dupe? And not just dupes, there are counterfeit and knocks-offs versions of the collectibles floating around.

We know we’ve seen what I assume are Lafufus (the term used for counterfeit or knockoff Lafufus) on my travels.

Well, Pop Mart, the official seller of Labubu has taken a hard line against these counterfeits, even going as far to trademark the name Lafufu as well as Labubu to counteract the amount of fakes flooding the market.

But Disney’s YuYu’s, despite sharing similarities with the Labubu product is not a dupe or a counterfeit version of a product. At heart its just cute, collectible versions of some of Disney’s most popular characters dressed up in colourful outfits.

Which makes it hard to trademark against. It is also not the only brand that’s offering something similar, Sanrio offers collectible versions of their famous character Hello Kitty and her slightly less famous friends Cinnamonroll, Pompompurin and My Melody.

In fact if you take a look at Miniso or Pop Mart’s websites you can find hundreds of collectibles with similar concepts.

So is it the blind box concept that causes people to believe their may be a trademark issue?

Well no, we don’t believe it does.

Blind boxes as a concept can trace their origin’s back to at least the 1980’s. They were popularised by Gachapon, a Japanese capsule toy that was dispensed by a vending machine and have since evolved to become the product we know now.

The biggest similarity (at least according to our editor) is the name. YuYu.

Yuyu according to my research is used in both Japanese and Chinese cultures and has multiple meanings including eternity (Japanese) and jade (Chinese) And, in Chinese culture reduplication is often used as a pet name or affectionate nickname.

So perhaps Disney wanted something playful to appeal to the market and pay homage to both the Japanese roots of the blind box category and Chinese roots of the product that made the category boom?

Verdict: While they are similarities, this is mostly just down to the category- collectible keychain plush. I don’t think it’s fair to say they are copying when their are hundreds, if not thousands of products on the market that are similar.

But you may disagree!

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