Court Ruled Douyu as Illegitimate in its Complaints to Apple against Huya

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Battle among live-streaming platforms in China is flaring up. On March 8, 2018, Tencent invested respectively USD 630 million and USD 461.6million in Huya and Douyu on the same day, which helped establish the status  of the two companies as the top two  live-streaming platforms.

On August 30, 2018, an email sent from Apple to Huya said that two applications developed by Huya infringed the intellectual property rights of Wuhan Yuxingtianxia Cultural Media Co., Ltd..

It’s known that Wuhan Yuxingtianxia Cultural Media Co., Ltd.(Douyu) is a wholly owned subsidiary of Wuhan Douyu Network Technology Co., Ltd. whose shareholder is Douyu Hongkong Limited and legal representatives Chen Shaojie, founder of Douyu. According to the verdict,Douyu claimed that since it had signed brokerage contracts with three live-streaming hosts the copyright of all video and audio works belonged to Douyu as long as the contracts were still valid.Douyu hence  requested Apple Store to remove Huya applications for its unauthorized spread. It is estimated Douyu complained 23 times, all out of  infringement and unfair competition.

In this case, Nansha People’s Court of Guangdong  Province  supported Huya’s application for injunction “In the complaint emails, Douyu require Apple to remove Huya’s live-streaming apps from App Store, not just contents related to the above three hosts  Such an action is aiming at eliminating competitors and capturing  market share and  thus is illegitimate.” Presented in the judgement.

The court ruled  that Douyu shall immediately stop its complaint about the two apps developed by Huya after the verdict is reached.

Douyu confirms that  it  has already applied for a reconsideration .

“I think this case is of great importance, and it may provide a strong basis on preventing unfair competition,” said Zhao Ming, a lawyer of Beijing Zhongtong Law Firm, “It’s a normal way of fighting against unfair competition by exerting stress without filing a lawsuit. The rule of injunction can effectively restrain such a behavior. I believe that China will do a better job in IPR protection.

March 29, 2019

Source: Securities Daily

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