May 16, 2016  Shanghai Daily  By Ke Jiayun

SHANGHAI Intellectual Property Court made its final ruling on the nation’s first unfair competition dispute over the broadcasting of e-sports, officials said yesterday.

The court rejected an appeal filed by Guangzhou Douyu Network Technology Co, which was ordered to hand over 1.1 million yuan (US$168,000) in compensation to a local company for illegally airing the same e-sports competition for which the plaintiff had bought exclusive broadcasting rights.

The local Dota 2 Asia Championships organizer, Shanghai Yaoyu Culture & Media Co, was authorized in 2014 to hold the matches in the city in 2015 and broadcast the Dota2 matches on its website huomaotv.com. Yaoyu paid about 6 million yuan on gaining the broadcast rights and organized the contest at a cost of about 14 million yuan.

However, once the event got under way, live broadcasts of individual matches also began appearing on douyutv.com, the site operated by the Guangzhou-based company.

Yaoyu then filed a lawsuit at the trial court, demanding compensation and an end to the infringement. It also asked Douyu to post a statement on its website admitting its wrongdoing.

The Pudong New Area People’s Court later ordered Douyu to pay Yaoyu 1.1 million yuan and make a public announcement regarding the infringement.

Unsatisfied with the ruling, Douyu appealed to the Shanghai Intellectual Property Court, claiming that Yaoyu did not specifically forbid other companies from using its content on its website, and that its actions did not have a negative impact on the company.

However, the court ruled that its actions constituted unfair competition.