Jinmailang is once again under controversy! After just apologizing for "handmade noodles," are they playing tricks with the "one and a half buckets"?

Ask AI · Why is it hard to verify the reference standard behind Jinfenglang’s “one and a half tub” and “one and a half bag” portion-size promotion?

First came one controversy, and then another, and today Jinfenglang was once again pushed onto the center of public scrutiny.

It started with its “hand-made hanging noodles,” which sparked considerable debate. Some consumers saw two prominent Chinese characters “手打” on the packaging at a supermarket. They thought the hanging noodles were hand-made. After purchasing and eating them, they found the texture was no different from ordinary machine-made hanging noodles.

Later, consumers figured out that the so-called “hand-made” was not a manufacturing process at all. It was simply a trademark name. In other words, it was a word-game.

After the issue began to snowball, on April 1, 2026, Jinfenglang’s chairman Fan Xianguo publicly responded. He announced that starting from 12:00 a.m. on April 2, the company would fully suspend production of all products bearing the “hand-made” trademark, trying to provide an explanation to consumers.

But just as the storm over “hand-made hanging noodles” was about to calm down, many people also noticed that the instant noodles that Jinfenglang is still selling normally—“1 tub and a half” and “1 bag and a half”—also have the large labels “1 tub and a half” and “1 bag and a half” on the packaging. They are equally eye-catching, and both products indicate the TM trademark.

01 “Hand-made” just flipped out, and “one and a half tub” comes back with another trick

Phoenix Finance’s “Company Research Institute” noted that for Jinfenglang’s “1 bag and a half” instant noodles, there are at least two specifications. On the packaging, the biscuit/pancake weight is labeled as 110g and 120g, respectively. Both products publicly claim that the “portion is more than half.”

Many consumers have doubts: For this “more than half” portion, what exactly is the reference standard?

In the product page for the 110g package, there is a small note: “The ‘portion is more than half’ refers to comparison with Jinfenglang chicken-flavored noodles (noodle cake 70g).”

But within Jinfenglang’s official flagship store, the chicken-flavored noodle product used as the reference cannot be found through search. This means ordinary consumers cannot check or verify the reasonableness of the portion-size claim.

In addition, in Jinfenglang’s related stores, multiple instant-noodle listings that do not label “1 bag and a half” or “1 tub and a half” also have noodle cake weights of 100g or more.

For another “1 tub and a half” instant-noodle product, the noodle cake weight is 110g, and the product page does not mark any “1 tub and a half” portion reference explanation.

After Phoenix Finance’s “Company Research Institute” consulted as a consumer, the response obtained was: “‘One and a half tub’ is Jinfenglang’s large-bowl specification. Compared with ordinary small bowls (about 80–90g noodle cake), it has more. The noodle cake is 110g.”

But simple calculations show that if you strictly follow the literal meaning of “one and a half tub,” then even when comparing with the smallest 80g small-bowl noodle cake, the “one and a half tub” portion should be around 120g. Yet the actual noodle cake weight of 110g does not reach the “half-bowl” increase standard.

Li Haiquan, a lawyer at Shanghai Shenyihe Law Firm, told Phoenix Finance’s “Company Research Institute” that by using “one and a half tub / one and a half bag” as a prominent selling point—even though it is marked as a trademark—combined with the promotional wording “more than half” and the visual presentation, ordinary consumers will intuitively understand it as an actual 50% increase in quantity, which is easy to mislead. Even if there is a small-text comparison reference, this method itself is already suspected of violating multiple laws and regulations including the Consumer Rights Protection Law, the Advertising Law, and the Anti-Unfair Competition Law.

“According to Article 25 of the Anti-Unfair Competition Law, where an operator violates the provisions of Article 9 of this Law by making false or misleading commercial publicity for its goods, or by helping other operators make false or misleading commercial publicity through organizing false transactions, false reviews, and so on, the supervisory and inspection department shall order it to cease the unlawful conduct and impose a fine of not more than 1 million yuan; if the circumstances are serious, a fine of not less than 1 million yuan but not more than 2 million yuan shall be imposed, and revocation of the business license may also be ordered.” He added.

02 Trademarks are repeatedly invalidated; the judiciary has already characterized the issue

According to Qichacha, Jinfenglang has previously applied in batches for trademarks such as “one and a half tub,” “one and a half bag,” “tub and a half,” “bag and a half,” “Jinfenglang one and a half tub,” “Jinfenglang one and a half bag,” and “Jinfenglang one and a half cup,” all of which are trademarks likely to cause consumer confusion.

However, among these trademarks, aside from a small number that successfully registered—such as “Jinfenglang tub and a half” applied for in 2024—most of the others were either ruled invalid or still in the substantive examination stage.

In fact, the controversy over the “one and a half bag” trademark is not the first time.

According to media reports, as early as September 29, 2020, the National Intellectual Property Administration made a ruling declaring Jinfenglang Food Co., Ltd.’s “one and a half bag” trademark registration invalid. The ruling clearly stated that when used on goods such as instant noodles and noodles, the “one and a half bag” trademark directly describes core characteristics of the goods, such as their quantity and weight. It therefore cannot serve the function of distinguishing the source of goods, and lacks the distinctiveness required of trademarks. At the same time, the registration of this trademark is misleading, and easily causes the public to misperceive the portion size.

Disagreeing with the ruling, Jinfenglang Food Co., Ltd. filed a lawsuit with the court. In 2022, in the first-instance judgment of the invalidation case for the “one and a half bag” trademark, the court upheld the National Intellectual Property Administration’s ruling and held that the trademark was invalid. After Jinfenglang appealed, the second-instance court rejected the appeal, upheld the original judgment, and maintained the decision.

The second-instance court further clarified that during the sales process, Jinfenglang uses both the “one and a half bag” trademark and the “Jinfenglang” trademark at the same time. Combined with the general recognition habits of the relevant public, consumers typically identify “Jinfenglang” as the trademark for the product, and interpret “one and a half bag” as a description of the product’s weight, rather than as a trademark distinguishing the source of goods. Therefore, it cannot play the core identification role of a trademark. As such, when used on goods such as instant noodles, the “one and a half bag” trademark lacks the necessary distinctive characteristics and does not meet the legal conditions for trademark registration.

This judicial ruling has, in practice, already drawn a clear red line for this kind of “numeric portion trademark.” The core function of a trademark is to distinguish the source of goods, not to become a tool for exaggerated publicity or vague descriptions.

For fast-moving consumer brands, relying on word games to grab attention may boost sales in the short term. But in the long run, once consumers realize that the promotional claims do not match the actual product, the brand’s reputation will be damaged quickly.

In today’s increasingly fierce competition in the food industry, respecting consumers’ right to know and accurately labeling product information is far more likely to retain the market than marketing tricks and copy.

Reference:

《In the “More Than Half Bag Noodles” of White Elephant, the “more than half” is a trademark; some netizens question “playing with words”; lawyer: there is a suspicion of misleading consumers》Huashang Bao Feng News