Chinese Olympics broadcaster CCTV granted injunction to block program piracy

China’s Pudong New Area People’s Court of Shanghai city on February 13 ruled that Zhuhai Chuanghi New Network Technology Co., Ltd. (珠海创嗨新网络科技有限公司) must stop providing the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics programming on the application developed and maintained by it.

 

Two days agao, China Central Television International Network Co., Ltd. (央视国际网络有限公司) (CCTV International) filed a request for a preliminary injunction against Zhuhai Chuanghai as China’s exclusively licensed broadcaster of the Games.

 

The court found that Zhuhai Chuanghai’s live streaming of the opening ceremony and the events of the Olympics constituted copyright infringement and unfair competition and granted the injunction ordering the defendant to refrain from the infringing acts.

 

China's Supreme People's Court (SPC) passed the "Regulations on Certain Issues on the Application of Law for Conduct Preservation in Trials of Intellectual Property Disputes" (《最高人民法院关于审查知识产权纠纷行为保全案件适用法律若干问题的规定》) in 2018, which on January 1, 2019. The Regulations list the some situations as urgent, i.e., where the absence of an immediate interim injunction will significantly impact on the interests of IP owners. One of the situations listed is the infringement or threat of infringement of time-sensitive popular TV programs or movies. The programs of the Winter Olympics meet the urgency requirement for handing down an injunction.

 

The case docket number is 2022)沪0115行保1, whose Chinese transliteration is 1, non-contentious act preservation (行保), (2022) Pudong New Area People’s Court of Shanghai city (2022)沪0115).