A Beijing district court ruled on October 9 in favor of Chinese online video platform iQIYI who accused Shenzhen Bosheng King Digital Technology Co., Ltd. of unfair competition.

Baosheng King is a company marketing and selling cellphones and other digital products. As a marketing tactic, it shared its account of another online video application as a reward with a selection of its customers who actively confirmed the receipt of their products and commented on them on the company’s online shop. This alleged infringing application was Butterfly Spirit (蝴蝶精灵). With the shared account of Butterfly Spirit activated on their cellphones, the customers accessed the videos on iQIYI in the manner how iQIYI’s users do with premium memberships purchased.

IQIYI argued that Baosheng King’s Butterfly Spirit account abuse led to the application’s copyright infringement and required Baosheng King to pay 500,000 yuan ($78,000) in damages. The Beijing district court ruled in iQIYI’s favor and ordered the defendant to pay 150,000 yuan ($23,000) in damages.