近日,腾讯旗下拳头公司起诉沐瞳侵权案由美国加州中区法院作出判决,法院最终驳回原告拳头公司的起诉。
今年五月,拳头公司以涉嫌侵犯知识产权为由,在美国对沐瞳提起诉讼。判决书指出:“作为拳头的全资控股母公司,腾讯也参与了部分游戏开发,但‘不知出于何种原因’,拒绝完全参与本次诉讼。鉴于拳头和腾讯在各自游戏中自由使用对方的版权作品,无法完全明确游戏中哪些元素由拳头制作,哪些由腾讯制作。因此,允许拳头和腾讯同时对沐瞳发起双线诉讼是不公平的。”
法院认为:“拳头诉称沐瞳在本案中涉嫌抄袭的角色,在腾讯游戏《王者荣耀》同样有雷同之处。以下图为例,三款游戏的角色均使用了搭配蓝色和黄色的整体配色方案。”
左侧为LOL/Wild Rift;居中为MLBB;右侧为王者荣耀。【2】
有海外玩家指出,图中展示的MLBB皮肤为M2全球冠军战队皮肤,该冠军战队的主题色即为黄色。【3】
据此,法院得出结论,认为公平性问题在该案中非常重要。法院表示:“无论是本院还是被告沐瞳,都不能只依靠部分声明和文章来解决知识产权问题。 如果这一诉讼要在美国进行,沐瞳理应有获取完整证据的权力——但很显然,鉴于腾讯公司不在本院的传票权以内,本院无法保障沐瞳的此项权益。”【4】
据悉,该案是腾讯系公司与沐瞳又一次诉讼交锋。今年九月,沐瞳诉腾讯商业诋毁一案终审胜诉。判决显示,腾讯向沐瞳合作伙伴发送不实信息,误导对方认为“沐瞳侵犯商业秘密”,并要求对方停止与沐瞳合作。法院认定该行为对沐瞳构成商业诋毁,责令腾讯赔偿沐瞳经济损失及合理费用等共计22万元。【5】
附录
相关判决书原文及补充资料:
以下为判决书标注段落涉及的判决原文节选:
【1】
To reiterate, Riot is 100% owned by Tencent, a Chinese conglomerate, and Tencent has co-developed the very game at issue, but (for whatever reason), Tencent refuses to fully participate in this action.
Because it appears that Riot and Tencent freely allow the other to license/use the other’s copyrighted works in their respective video games (and indeed have now co-developed one of the games at issue), it is entirely unclear which elements of the games are made by Riot and which are made by Tencent. Such knowledge is critical to Moonton’s copyright defenses. It thus remains unfair to allow Riot and Tencent to bring a two-front war against Moonton unless and until Tencent decides to show up on both battlefields.
【2】
Moonton has persuasively pointed out that the characters that Riot accuses Moonton of copying in this action have close analogues in Tencent’s game, King’s Glory. The Court has provided a representative sample of side-by-side-by-side images from the three games below. In each set of images, the image from LoL/Wild Rift is on the far left; the image from MLBB is in the center; and the image from King’s Glory is on the right. For example, all three games have characters with big yellow swords against a blue and yellow color scheme.(图片亦均来自判决书原文)
【3】
MLBB M2全球冠军战队Bren的队服配色:https://www.facebook.com/BrenEsports/photos/pb.100051651700607.-2207520000./4187932221280273/?type=3
【4】
Ultimately, the Court concludes that the ownership concerns are just as relevant here (if not more relevant considering Tencent concededly co-developed Wild Rift) and just as unresolvable. Neither the Court nor Moonton should have to resolve such a core issue to a copyright claim on declarations and news articles alone. Rather, if this action were to proceed in the U.S., Moonton should be afforded full discovery on the issue – but of course, it would not be so entitled given Tencent is beyond this Court’s subpoena power.
【5】
沐瞳诉腾讯商业诋毁一案终审宣判相关信息,详见媒体报道:
第一财经:https://baijiahao.baidu.com/s?id=1746220692064464151
上海证券报:https://company.cnstock.com/company/scp_gsxw/202210/4965936.htm
IT之家:https://baijiahao.baidu.com/s?id=1746291436927341985
部分外媒报道:
PC Gamer:https://www.pcgamer.com/us-judge-tells-riot-to-take-league-of-legends-lawsuit-to-china/