Infringement Verdict by First Instance Court for Imitating WeChat Complaint Interface
Hangzhou Railway Transport Court made the first instance judgment on its first case in which platform manager sued platform users for unfair competition. The court decided that the acts of the two defendants, Hangzhou Kebei Network Technology Co.,Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Hangzhou Kebei Company) and Hangzhou Haiyi Network Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Hangzhou Haiyi Company) constituted unfair competition. The two defendants were ordered to stop the infringement and compensate Tencent for economic losses and reasonable expenses of 650,000 Yuan.
The plaintiff of the case, Tencent, is the WeChat service operator. The two defendants, Hangzhou Kebei Company and Hangzhou Haiyi Company were engaged in online loan information intermediary services through WeChat public account and mini-program. Tencent sued that the two companies had three acts constituting unfair competition, namely, obtaining Wechat verification by forging loaning qualifications, making false advertising for its products in public accounts and setting up a “complaint” template by imitating WeChat’s “complaint” interface.
Tencent believed that the acts of the two defendants damaged the competitive interests of other legitimate operators in WeChat and the legitimate rights and interests of WeChat users as consumers, reduced other WeChat operators’ and users’ trust in WeChat products, destroyed the normal registration and operation order of WeChat public accounts and mini-programs, and weakened WeChat products’ market competitiveness. Thus, the two companies should bear joint infringement liability. Tencent sued the two defendants to Hangzhou Railway Transport Court, demanding that the two defendants stop infringement, eliminate impact and compensate economic losses and reasonable expenses totaling 3 million Yuan.
After trial, the court held that the acts committed by the two defendants violated Article 2, Article 6 (4) and Article 8 of the Anti-Unfair Competition Law respectively, and the two defendants constituted joint infringement. Considering the popularity of WeChat service, the mode of the infringement acts in the case, user flow of the public accounts and loan products, and the defendants’ expenses on safeguarding rights, the court decided that the two defendants should take the joint liability of stopping infringement, eliminating influence, and compensating economic losses and reasonable expenses of 650,000 Yuan.
October 13, 2019
Source: iprchn.com
Photo from: 699pic.com
