Cottage games have a crisis, small companies can no longer have the luck of psychology

Donews Game March 16 feature (journalist Rossi)

Before the decision has been announced, the Guangzhou intellectual property Court issued a ban on the "National Warcraft: Decisive Battle Draenor" game to stop the release and operation. Previously, the product was "World of Warcraft" research and development side of Blizzard Entertainment and Chinese operators NetEase sued the court.

The ban was earlier than I had imagined, and it might have been possible to wait until the gaming industry's output was a bit bigger and competition more intense before the decision was enacted to protect intellectual property rights. To push back from the results now, there are a number of possible reasons, the plaintiff NetEase and Blizzard, one of the well-known enterprises in Guangzhou is an international well-known game enterprises; The Eleven-Five plan emphasizes the cultural industry, the country begins to pay more and more attention to the protection of intellectual property; Guangzhou Intellectual property Court is one of the top three intellectual property courts in the country.

Such a result, it is worth the vast number of game manufacturers, especially now the hottest and most uneven product quality of mobile game manufacturers concern, may be "the lawsuit is at least a few months, the money is earned" this kind of lucky idea, all go.

The lower limit of infringement described in past cases

According to insiders, NetEase and Blizzard to take is, as long as the products suspected of infringement, will try to bring a lawsuit, including screen, music, play and other aspects of the infringement may be sued.

National Warcraft used propaganda map, logo and "World of Warcraft" very similar to the background map with the World of Warcraft original painting

According to the lawyers who have handled similar tort cases, the current game tort, mainly focused on the picture/image, which is better to identify, and more easily identify the content of infringement, and play is difficult to be identified as a tort, because "method" does not have a patent. Earlier in the "Three Kingdoms kill" lawsuit using their same play card game case, the plaintiff "three kill" research and development Fong lost.

"Three Kingdoms killed" in the same year

But in NetEase and Blizzard v. Shanghai Travel Easy Network "Wolong legend-the Three Kingdoms famous biography" Tort case, Shanghai First Intermediate People's Court decided the plaintiff side NetEase and Blizzard win.

The court documents show that there are two reasons, 1 defendants and the accused product as a whole copied the "Furnace Stone legend: Warcraft Hero Biography", using the same game with the plaintiff game rules, but also in the game logo, interface and other aspects of the plaintiff's products have been a comprehensive imitation. 2 defendants failed to compete in the gaming industry through their own legal intellectual labor, but through improper plagiarism means that the plaintiff's intellectual achievements accounted for, and to promote the game's selling point, its behavior is contrary to the principle of equality, fairness, honesty and credit and recognized business ethics, beyond the game industry competitors in the legitimate reference and imitation , with the nature of unfair competition.

In the above cases, however, the operation of infringing products was prohibited after the verdict. In this case, the Guangzhou intellectual property Court before the verdict, banned the operation of suspected infringing products, the court said, because the plaintiff's chances of winning a higher.

The "tricks" of big companies

According to data from the 2014 China Gaming Industry Report, the total market value of real sales has reached 114.48 billion yuan. In this more than billions of markets, there are dozens of listed companies. As the first Echelon member, occupies the limited resources, raises the cost, constructs the barrier, buys each kind of well-known intellectual property right, is now one of industry hottest words IP, is one of them means.

Such a measure has been successful, given the rising price of royalties and the increasingly decentralized trading of mandates. Small companies that don't have enough money can afford IP.

And in the real face of possible disputes and lawsuits, large companies in the resources, but also generally more than small companies. The former thought that even if the defendant had time to "make a fortune", it should be broken by a paper ban.

Small companies should not have a "lucky" mentality

Perhaps before such a fire shadow, such as the success of such a pirate Wang, but also let small companies have some illusions. But this time is different from the past, where the capital, where people are, is not likely to use a well-known IP as before the relevant content, may not be found by IP holders, or the other side because of cross-border litigation difficulties and give up rights ...

On the other hand, the current market is not relying on "fast" to win the share of the overall level of users to increase the acceptance of the cottage itself may also fall ...

So what else can a small company do?

Perhaps you should think about how to do a real heart product, do not always think of gradually will be blocked shortcuts.

"Warm" series will be the past of the games to deepen, brand, build the practice of self-built IP, the achievement of a company. "Legend of the Sword" innovative play, the achievement of two companies. Monument Valley Even the president loves to play.

Maybe some small companies do not have such lofty ideals just want to make money, but you should at least ensure that you are not accused of not being banned from operation, to continue to make money?

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