Shanghai court upholds "The Autobots" copyright infringement verdict

SHANGHAI, Dec. 21 (Xinhua) -- Shanghai intellectual property right court Thursday 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 eastern China's Fujian Province and released by G-Point in Beijing, was screened in July 2015.

Disney Enterprises, Inc. and Pixar, 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."

Shanghai Pudong New District People's Court said the images of the main characters in "The Autobots" -- named K1 and K2 -- infringed on the copyright of the characters Lightening McQueen and Francesco Bernoulli in "Cars" and "Cars 2."

The court ordered an immediate stop to the infringement and compensation of over 1.35 million yuan (205,180 U.S. dollars).

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.

Bluemtv and G-Point appealed to the Shanghai intellectual property right court, which affirmed the original judgment.

"We are pleased the court is protecting the intellectual property rights of creative companies like ours," Disney Enterprises, Inc. told Xinhua. Enditem