Disney sues Chinese companies over copyright infringement

Beijing, June 22: At least two Disney subsidiaries have sued three Chinese companies for infringement of intellectual property rights and unfair competition. Disney Enterprises Inc. and Pixar, holders of the copyrights of animated comedies “Cars” and “Cars 2” as well as the character images, sued G-Point in Beijing, PPTV in Shanghai and Bluemtv in Xiamen of east Chi’s Fujian province, after they found images and posters of the animated movie “The Autobots” resembling those of “Cars” and “Cars 2”.

“The Autobots”, screened last July, was produced by Bluemtv, released by G-Point and shown on the website of PPTV, Xinhua news agency reported. At the court, attorneys for the plaintiffs on Tuesday said images of the main characters in “The Autobots” — “K1” and “K2” — plagiarised the characters “Lightening McQueen” and “Francesco Bernoulli” in “Cars” and “Cars 2”. They said the Chinese me of the movie bore a high resemblance to the Disney and Pixar movies. The plaintiffs asked for immediate stop to the infringement, and compensation of 4 million yuan ($607,000) to cover the economic losses and the lawsuit expense.

Lawyers for the defendants replied that images of “K1” and “K2” were created independently, based on the appearance of real automobiles.

They also argued they had emphasised “The Autobots” was a domestic movie, so consumers would not be confused by the me. In addition, the film was not successful and filmmakers did not profit. A verdict of the case will be announced later. (IANS)

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