On January 11, the Hangzhou Internet Court opened a public hearing and sentenced in Court a copyright infringement and unfair competition case between a film company in Beijing and two network companies in Hangzhou and Beijing, and a technology company. The Court judged the defendant, an Hangzhou network company and a Beijing Internet company immediately stopped the copyright infringements of "Nezha" and "Ao Bing", and compensate for losses totaling 1 million yuan for copyright infringements and unfair competition; the defendant, an Internet company in Hangzhou, publish an apology publicly and eliminate influences.
 

A film company in Beijing owns the copyright to the film "Ne Zha" and the copyright of fine artworks characters "Nezha" and "Ao Bing"; the film "Ne Zha" is produced, publicized and promoted by a film company in Beijing, it has become a highly popular film and television work in China. The film’s main characters, such as "Ne Zha" and "Ao Bing" are also well known and have a high reputation and market value. The three defendants infringed upon the work’s copyright, including reproduction rights, distribution rights, information network dissemination rights, and adaptation rights of "Ne Zha" and "Ao Bing". The defendants should bear the corresponding infringement liability. The three defendants launched the game character skin of the same movie character in the game "Tower Defense Of Three Kingdoms" shortly after the movie "Ne Zha" was stopped playing, and used the movie plot setting to promote the game character skin. The popularity of "Na Zha" has created momentum for the game, and it is obviously intentional to "free ride", which altogether constitutes unfair competition to a Beijing film company.

There are diverse differences in the avatar system and functions of the character skin in games. Changing the appearance of a specific variable digital image has become an important profit model in the game industry. It is also one of the main points for game players to pay for games. This case provides a practical reference for exploring the boundaries of "game character skin" infringement and film works’ protection approach.

Source: China IP Today