On January 31, Guangzhou Intellectual Property Court issued an injunction, according to which, from then on, the following three corporations associated with Watermelon Video App must stop streaming Honor of Kings, a popular mobile game developed by Tencent: Yuncheng Sunlight Media, Bytedance-owned aggregator Jinri Toutiao, and Bytedance. With the thriving of game streaming as an emerging industry in recent years, the Court’s ruling against unlawful game streaming became the first of its kind.

The Court held that the three corporations infringed upon Tencent's rights by seizing the game streaming market and user base of Honor of Kings, thus violating the principle of honesty and credibility as well as business ethics.

In November 2018, Tencent sued the three corporations for violating its copyright along with being involved in unfair competition.

Based on China’s Copyright Law and judicial practice, mobile games’ copyright belongs to their developers. Any unauthorized exploitation of mobile games can be deemed an infringement upon their copyright.

On February 16, Beijing Youth Daily found that although the game streaming of Honor of Kings was already removed from Watermelon Video App, the game’s international version is still listed on the front page of the App. Also listed are several other popular games developed by Tencent, such as Player Unknown’s Battlegrounds (PUBG) and League of Legends.

According to Cong Lixian, professor of the School of Intellectual Property in East China University of Political Science and Law, such kind of prohibition set a good example in game streaming industry. Although there is only one game concerned in the case, the Court has made it clear that no streaming should be allowed unless the game streaming platform is authorized. In this way, streaming of Player Unknown’s Battlegrounds (PUBG) and League of Legends must not be allowed either.

February 18, 2019

Source: Beijing Youth Daily

photo from: 699pic