"One Hundred Thousand Cold Jokes" Infringed "The Calabash Brothers" Was Sentenced to Pay 500,000

The cartoon of "Brothers Calabash" was infringed by the comics, animation and game works of "One Hundred Thousand Cold Jokes", and the producer received a compensation of 500,000.

On September 9th, The Paper learned from the Shanghai Intellectual Property Court that recently, the court had challenged the appellants, Beijing April Star Network Technology Co., Ltd., Tianjin Xianshan Cultural Communication Co., Ltd., Beijing Wonderful Hengsheng Network Technology Co., Ltd., and Bluekong Online (Beijing). ) Technology Co., Ltd. and the appellee Shanghai Art Film Studio Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Meiying Factory") and the defendant in the original trial, Shanghai Luxor Network Technology Co., Ltd., made a judgment on copyright ownership and infringement disputes, and upheld the first-instance judgment. Moon Star Company, Xianshan Company, Wonderful Company, and Langang Company should immediately stop infringing on the copyright of Meiying Factory's gourd doll animation art works, and jointly compensate Meiying Factory for economic losses of 500,000 yuan and reasonable expenses of 19,500 yuan. According to the Shanghai Intellectual Property Court, the animation "Brothers Calabash" produced by Meiying Factory is very well-known. Meiying Factory enjoys the copyright of the animation "Brothers Calabash" and the animation character artwork of the gourd baby in addition to the authorship rights.

In April, Star Company, Xianshan Company and Chen Moumou, an outsider, signed a "Contract of Contract for Contributions for Contributions" and obtained the copyright of the comic art works of "One Hundred Thousand Cold Jokes". On June 1, 2013, April Star Company, Wonder Company, and Linekong Company signed the "Cooperative Development and Operation Agreement." April Star Company, as the copyright owner of the comic works and animation works of "One Hundred Thousand Cold Jokes", agreed to the Wonder Company The "One Hundred Thousand Cold Jokes" was adapted into a mobile game, and Linekong will exclusively represent and operate the adapted game.

Beauty Studio believes that in the mobile games "One Hundred Thousand Chill Jokes" and "One Hundred Thousand Crank Jokes", there are characters in the mobile games: big baby, second baby, third baby, fourth baby, fifth baby, and seventh baby. The image infringes on the right to adapt the image of Gourd Baby and the right to disseminate information through the Internet.

April Star Company, Xianshan Company, Wonderful Company, and Lineport Company jointly developed and operated the games involved in the case "One Hundred Thousand Chill Jokes" and "One Hundred Thousand Chill Jokes", which constituted copyright infringement to the US Film Studio, so they were sued , Requesting an order to order the four companies to immediately stop the infringement, publish a statement to eliminate the impact, and the four companies and Luxor to compensate the Meiying factory for economic losses of 5 million yuan.

April Xingkong Company, Xianshan Company, Wonderful Company, and Langang Company jointly argued that the six disputed cartoon images in the game involved use the art works of six Fuluwas that are copyrighted by April Xingkong, and Fuluwa is partial to animation. The style of the juvenile image is different from the paper-cut cartoon image in the cartoon of "The Calabash Brothers". There are big differences between the two in terms of head-to-body ratio, face shape, hairstyle and color, and facial features. Fuluwa and Calabash are similar. The parts are only the clothing part. The design of the gourd crown, waist apron, barefoot and other designs are derived from elements in the public domain. Fuluwa and the gourd do not constitute a substantial similarity in the meaning of copyright law, and therefore do not constitute copyright infringement.

After the trial, the court of first instance held that the six gourd dolls in the cartoon of "Brothers Calabash" are the basic images of the gourd dolls outlined by the author with lines and colors. They have the characteristics of piercing, powerful, innocent and lovely characters. , Reflects the author's choice of composition and painting skills. The gourd doll's animation image forms a specific and fixed expression of the gourd doll's role through the use of lines, outlines, clothing and colors. It is artistic, original and reproducible, and belongs to art works. Meiying Factory is the copyright owner of the six gourd doll animation character art works and has the right to prohibit others from infringing the copyright of the above works. The characteristics of clothing and accessories are an important part of the character's image. The six Fulu girls are the same as the six gourd girls in the details of the clothing and accessories, except for the different colors. It can be determined that the two constitute substantially similar.

The court of first instance found that the six art works of Fuluwa in the game involved were substantially similar to the characters of the six art works of the gourd in the cartoon of "The Calabash Brothers", which constituted copyright infringement. The first instance verdict that April Star Company, Xianshan Company, Wonderful Company, and Lineport Company immediately stop infringing on the copyright of the "Gourd Baby" animation and art works of Meiying Factory; publish a statement to eliminate the impact; In April, Starry Sky Company, Xianshan Company, Wonderful Company, and Lineport Company jointly compensated the Meiying Studio for economic losses of 500,000 yuan and reasonable expenses of 19,500 yuan.

April Star Company, Xianshan Company, Wonderful Company, and Lineport Company appealed to the Shanghai Intellectual Property Court against the judgment of the first instance.

The Shanghai Intellectual Property Court held that the difference between the animation image of Fuluwa and the animation image of Gourd Baby is the body part of the animation image, and the similar part of the two is the clothing part. The appellant argued that the costumes of the gourd dolls were from the public domain and were not protected by copyright law, but he only proved that the individual elements of the gourd dolls were from the public domain, and failed to prove that they existed before the creation of the gourd dolls. Costumes that are substantially similar to the entire gourd doll costume. Fu Luwa is a new work adapted from Gourd Baby, and April Star Company infringed on the right to adapt the work of the US Film Studio. In April, Starry Sky Company and Xianshan Company successively provided animation image authorization for the games involved in the case, Wonder Fun Company developed the games involved in the case, and Linekong Company operated the games involved in the case, jointly infringing on the information network dissemination rights of the works of the US Film Studio. The court of first instance comprehensively considers the popularity and reputation of the works involved in the Meiying Studio, the licensing fees of the works involved in the Meiying Studio, the infringer’s subjective intentions, the duration and scope of the infringement, and the proportion of the cartoon image involved in the number of characters in the game involved, etc., and determines the economy as appropriate. The amount of compensation for the loss is 500,000 yuan, and the determined amount of compensation is within a reasonable range and shall be maintained. The appellants shall be jointly and severally liable for compensation in the division of labor and cooperation to jointly commit tortious acts. To sum up, the Shanghai Intellectual Property Court rejected the appeal and upheld the original judgment.

(original title: "One Hundred Thousand Cold Jokes" infringement "Gourd Brothers" was sentenced to 500,000 compensation)

(responsible editor: Xu Meiyu_NBJS11310)