Recently, Tianyancha showed that Guangzhou Huoquanhu Information Technology Co., Ltd. was ordered to pay 30,000 yuan in compensation to Shanghai Mihao Tianming Technology Co., Ltd. for copyright infringement. Guangzhou Huoquanhu Information Technology Co., Ltd. is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Guangzhou Sanqi Network Technology Co., Ltd.
This case involves the massively multiplayer online role-playing game “Song of Cloud City” under Sanqi Interactive. The game performed well in overseas markets, and its overseas revenue ranking jumped to 11th in April, with monthly revenue exceeding 10 million. Among them, the monthly revenue in the Korean market exceeded 100 million yuan, and the monthly revenue in the Japanese market was around 60 million yuan.
Shanghai Mihao Tianming Technology Co., Ltd. sued Guangzhou Huoquanhu Information Technology Co., Ltd., Guangzhou Sanqi Network Technology Co., Ltd., and Jiangsu Jiaqu Network Technology Co., Ltd. as defendants. They accused the latter of tampering with and using the screen of Miha’s “Original God” promotional picture “The Knights of Favonius” without authorization, misleading users to download the “Song of Cloud City-Legend of the Brave” game. The plaintiff believed that Sanqi Network Company and Jiaqu Network Company jointly operated the game, which was involved in serious advertising behavior, and the plaintiff’s copyright was determined, resulting in the legendary relationship between the game “Song of Cloud City-Youyongzhe” and “Original God”, which rationalized consumers. The three defendants obtained considerable benefits and constituted insufficient competition.
The court ruled that the defendant Huoquanhu Company published pictures that were substantially similar to the plaintiff’s works on its official account, infringing the plaintiff’s information network dissemination rights; at the same time, its behavior also caused confusion among senior players, causing players to mistakenly believe that “Original God” was related to “Song of Cloud City”, and its business scope overlapped with the plaintiff’s business scope, constituting unfair competition. The defendant Jiaqu Network Company is the operator of “Sanqi Mobile Game” and currently operates the game “Song of Cloud City”. However, the plaintiff Mihao Company did not provide evidence of its participation in advertising. Therefore, the court did not support the plaintiff’s claim that the two defendants and the defendant Huoquanhu Company jointly constituted unfair competition.
In the end, the court ruled that the defendant Huoquanhu Company compensated the plaintiff Mihao Company for 30,000 yuan. Tianyancha shows that Guangzhou Huoquanhu Information Technology Co., Ltd. is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Guangzhou Sanqi Network Technology Co., Ltd., which is jointly controlled by Sanqi Interactive (Shanghai) Technology Co., Ltd. and Sanqi Interactive Network Technology Group Co., Ltd. Sanqi Interactive performed well in the first half of the year, and its overseas business developed rapidly. In July, Sanqi Interactive released its 2022 semi-annual performance forecast, and it is expected that the net profit attributable to the company’s shareholders will be between 1.6 billion yuan and 1.7 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 87.42% to 99.13%; the net profit after deducting non-recurring gains and losses is expected to be between 1.55 billion yuan and 1.65 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 143.13% to 158.81%. Among them, games such as “Cloud City Song-Heroic Legend” performed well in overseas markets. During the reporting period, the company’s overseas revenue is expected to increase by more than 40%, and the proportion of overseas revenue continues to increase. In April 2022, Sanqi Interactive ranked second in overseas revenue among Chinese game companies.
Sensor Tower Store Intelligence Platform data in April showed that “Cloud City Song” performed well in the Korean and Japanese markets, and its overseas ranking rose by 3 places to 11th. The Korean market is still the market with the highest income, accounting for 47.9% of the monthly income, while the Japanese market accounts for