Shulou(Shulou.com)11/24 Report--

CTOnews.com November 30 news, According to Guangdong Province High People's Court news, Today, Guangdong Province High People's Court on Guangzhou Netease Company, Shanghai NetEase Company v. Shenzhen Mini Play Company copyright infringement and unfair competition dispute case made a final judgment, Found Shenzhen Mini Play Company constituted unfair competition, Order it to delete 230 infringing elements in the game, And compensate Netease 50 million yuan. It is understood that this is the highest amount of compensation awarded in domestic game infringement dispute cases.

Guangdong Supreme People's Court held that the overall picture of the two games constituted an electric-like work, namely, the "audio-visual works" of the new copyright law, but the similarity between the two lies in the design of game elements rather than game pictures, so Netease's claim for copyright infringement was rejected.

At the same time, the court held that "Mini World" and "My World" are highly similar in the rules of play, and there are many overlaps in the details of game elements, which have exceeded the limits of reasonable reference. By copying the design of game elements, mini-play companies directly seize the key and core personalized commercial value of other people's intellectual achievements, and seize business opportunities by improperly obtaining other people's business interests, which constitutes unfair competition.

The judge said, Comprehensive consideration of sandbox game characteristics, Infringement content proportion, Rectification possibility and other factors, Focus on the player in the game may enjoy the rights of the work, Based on balancing the interests of both parties and protecting the interests of the player group angle, Did not support Netease company request "Mini World" Stop operation application, And ordered the mini play company to delete "Mini World" infringement 230 game elements.

In response to the above judgment results, Mini World's official Weibo released an announcement:

Recently, Guangdong Province High Court determined that "Mini World" did not infringe on the copyright of the overall picture of "My World" game, Netease's request for "Mini World" game shutdown was rejected according to law. We respect the judgment of the High Court of Guangdong Province, and Mini World will continue to operate normally.

Here, we express our deep apologies to all Minecraft and Mini World friends affected by this dispute.

Looking back at the history of world games, Minecraft is undoubtedly a great work and a predecessor we have always admired. It brings countless players wonderful imagination, interesting interaction and precious memories; while "Mini World" adheres to the mission of "inspiring imagination and creating happiness," looking forward to experiencing this colorful world hand in hand with all friends who love sandbox games and exploring the vast universe together.

CTOnews.com learned that public information shows that Minecraft (My World) was launched in 2009 and introduced into the mainland of China by Netease Games in 2017. It is a popular first-person sandbox game in the world. As of May 2021, Minecraft had 238 million sales and 150 million monthly active users, breaking Tetris records and becoming the best-selling video game of all time.

Mini World was launched in 2016 and developed by Shenzhen Mini Play Technology Co., Ltd. As of July 2021, its monthly active players have exceeded 100 million, of which more than six are teenagers.

On August 15,2017, Netease issued a rights protection letter to Mini Play on the grounds of suspected plagiarism of its agent game My World, and requested deletion and removal. Between 2018 and 2021, Netease and Mini Play have been in court for many times, so far, the dispute over Chinese sandbox games lasting nearly four years has been settled.

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