Shanghai court upholds 'The Autobots' verdict

Shanghai Intellectual Property Right Court yesterday rejected an appeal by two Chinese companies and ordered them to pay compensation to Disney Enterprises Inc and Pixar for intellectual property right infringement and unfair competition.

The animated film “The Autobots,” produced by Bluemtv in Xiamen in Fujian Province and released by G-Point in Beijing, was screened in July 2015.

The two US firms, holders of the copyrights to animated comedies “Cars” and “Cars 2” as well as the character images, sued G-Point, Bluemtv and an online video provider after they found that the images, title and posters for “The Autobots” resembled those of “Cars” and “Cars 2.”

The court ordered that the infringement be stopped immediately and awarded compensation of over 1.35 million yuan (US$205,180).

Bluemtv was asked to pay 1 million yuan to cover the plaintiffs’ economic losses, for which G-Point has joint liability for 800,000 yuan. The two companies were also asked to pay 350,000 yuan to cover the legal expenses of the plaintiffs.

Shanghai Pudong New Area People’s Court, which first heard the case last year, said the images of the main characters in “The Autobots” — named K1 and K2 — infringed the copyright of the characters in “Cars” and “Cars 2.”