A renowned domestic game company represented by W&B recently won a lawsuit against one of its peers over copyright infringement and unfair competition. The judgement issued in the case carries precedential value for regulating game industry operations.  

Back in 2013, martial arts and chivalry novel writer Cha Leung-yung (better known by his pen name Jin Yong) granted the exclusive right to adapt four of his works, namely, the Legend of the Condor Heroes, the Return of the Condor Heroes, the Heaven Sword and Dragon Saber and Smiling, Proud Wanderer to a well-known domestic game company for use in game programs delivered to mobile devices.

In May 2014 the company discovered that another company in the industry had developed a game entitled Six Major Schools by taking the foregoing four novels as a blueprint and by employing a great number of forms of expression that were unique to these novels, all without authorization. Moreover, the suspect company also included relevant elements of the disputed works on its official website.

The game industry is an emerging industry that has enjoyed rapid development in China in recent years. Although infringement disputes are not rare in the industry, there have been very few precedents concerning infringement of the right to adapt a literary work into a game work in China before the filing of this lawsuit.

Acting as the well-known game company’s agents, W&B partner Yizhou Liu and attorneys Peili Ye and Mengfei Yu from the Copyright and Trademark Litigation Department drafted a legal action memo specific to game evidence collection and infringement comparison before the hearing, and presented their views to the court by citing applicable provisions of the Copyright Law and the Anti-Unfair Competition Law.

Ultimately, the court found that the game Six Major Schools used the unique forms of expression of the copyrighted work without authorization, thereby infringing the exclusive right to adapt the copyrighted work. The court further held that the defendant’s act improperly gained market share for games based on Jin Yong’s works and adversely impacted the copyright owner’s subsequent game development, thereby disturbing market order and constituting a breach of good faith and unfair competition.

The ruling in this case accurately and distinctively elaborated on the infringement of the right to adapt a literary work to a game program. Even more commendably, the court offered an observation of the ripple effects brought about by IP infringement from the broader perspective of the maintenance of market order.

This particular case should set off alarms for practitioners in the game industry -- any party who incorporates distinctive forms of expression of the work of another into his/her own game program by adaptation must respect the copyrights in the original work. Additionally, any economic activity must respect market rules and order and must adhere to the basic principle of good faith in order to avoid unnecessary legal liability.

W&B will continue to provide high-quality and principled legal services to protect the IP rights of domestic and international enterprises alike.