Recently, the Shanghai Intellectual Property Court sentenced infringement dispute, maintained the first-instance judgment to the appellant Beijing Siyue Xingkong Network Technology co., LTD., Tianjin Xianshan Culture Communication co., LTD, Beijing Miaoqu Hengsheng Network Technology co., LTD., the Langang Online (Beijing) technology co., LTD. with the appellee Shanghai Animation Film Studio co., LTD. and the original defendant Shanghai Le Shu, the ownership of the copyright in network technology co., LTD. Siyue Xingkong, Xianshan, Miaoqu, and Langang Company shall immediately stop the infringement behavior of Calabash Brothers cartoon fun artwork of Shanghai Animation Film Studio co., LTD. The four companies are judged to compensate the Shanghai Animation Film Studio for economic losses of $500,000 and reasonable expenses of $19,500.
The Shanghai Intellectual Property Court held that the difference between the cartoon image of Fuluwa and the cartoon image of Calabash Brothers is the body part of the cartoon image. The similarity is the dress part. The appellant maintains that Calabash Brothers' cartoon images’ costumes come from the public domain and are not protected by the Copyright Law. However, the appellant only proves that the individual elements of Calabash Brothers' costumes come from the public domain and fails to prove that before the creation of the Calabash Brothers' cartoon images and the costumes that substantially similar to the whole set of Calabash Brothers' costumes already exist.
Fuluwa is a new work based on The Calabash Brothers, and Siyue Xingkong infringed on the rights of adaptation of the work of Shanghai Animation Film Studio. Siyue Xingkong Company and Xianshan Company successively provided authorization of cartoon images for the game related to the case. MiaoQu Company developed the game and Langang Company operated the game, all of which violated the right of dissemination of the work information network of the Shanghai Animation Film Studio.
Court of first instance considers Shanghai Animation Film Studio works’ popularity and reputation, work’s authorization fee, the subjective intent of the person, the duration of the infringement, the scope, cartoon figures involved in the case, and the number of characters in the game accounted for factors. The court reasonably determines the amount of compensation for economic losses for 500,000 yuan; the identified compensation is in a reasonable range, shall be maintained. Since the appellants cooperate in a labor division and jointly commit torts, they shall bear joint and several liability for compensation.
