III

Authorities should be obtained from relevant rights holders when developing related derivative products of film and television series.If the derivative product is adapted and developed based on a certain inf luential film and television series work, and it will cause the public to mistakenly believe that the development of the derivative product is based on the authorization of the relevant rights holder of the film and television series, it is a case of making use of the market popularity of well-known(influential) works to make profits for oneself.There is a suspicion of“free-riding”, which constitutes unfair competition.

Case: Company B and Company S are the copyright owners of the well-known film F, which is adapted from the novel of the same name by writer M.Company Q developed and operated the online games F, table games F, and paper games F using the font design, movie stills, character images, character names, plots, etc.with the name of movie F without permission.Company B and S alleged that the above actions of Company Q constitute confusion and false publicity in unfair competition.((2011)Dong Min Chu Zi No.08214)(https://www.daowen.com)

The court held that: With the rapid expansion of the film derivatives market today, there are many behaviors that rely on the popularity of movies to obtain illegal benefits at any link related to the film industry chain by means of “free-riding”, which tangibly or intangibly reduces the business interests of the right owner in the relevant market.

In this case, Company Q claimed on its website that game F was designed with the background of film F and had the relevant rights of film F.The content of the promotion was inconsistent with the facts and was false, deceptive and misleading.Company Q also used the character stills from the film F to compare and introduce them with the game characters, the result being that several characters in the game are similar to the corresponding characters in the film.The above-mentioned behavior of Company Q further caused the public to mistakenly believe that the game F was made with the authorization of the right owner of the movie,adapted from the movie.It used the market popularity of the film F to make profits for itself, and its behavior had a suspicion of “free-riding”,which constituted misleading publicity.