Chinese companies to pay Disney $194,000 in copyright dispute
Two China-based companies have been ordered to pay Disney and Pixar RMB 1.35 million ($194,000) in a copyright infringement dispute.
According to Xinhua, China’s official news agency, production company Blue MTV and media company Beijing G-Point must pay the compensation for intellectual property infringement and unfair competition.
WIPR reported that Disney and Pixar had sued the companies in June last year at the Shanghai Pudong New Area People’s Court.
They alleged that Chinese animation “The Autobots”, which was released in 2015, copied elements from the films “Cars” and “Cars 2”.
The court ordered an immediate stop to the infringement, with Blue MTV told to pay RMB 1 million to cover the plantiffs’ economic losses. Of the RMB 1 million, G-Point is jointly liable for RMB 800,000.
Blue MTV and G-Point were also asked to pay RMB 350,000 to cover the legal expenses of the plaintiffs.
The court said the images of the main characters in “The Autobots”—K1 and K2—infringed the copyright of the characters Lightning McQueen and Francesco Bernoulli in “Cars” and “Cars 2”, according to Xinhua.
“The court said the Chinese title of the movie has a different meaning to the Disney productions and should not be seen as unfair competition, but the resemblance in the visual effect of the movie’s name on the poster constitutes an act of unfair competition, although the overall design of the posters is different,” said Xinhua.
