Recently, the appeal of dispute over copyright infringement and unfair competition - Shanghai Yaoyu Culture Media Co., Ltd. v. Guangzhou Douyu Network Technology Co., Ltd. concluded by Shanghai Intellectual Property Court was selected as 2016 Top 10 Civil and Administrative Cases of People's Courts. As a new type of intellectual property case emerging with the development ofe-sports game sector, it mainly involves the legal protection of right to broadcast e-Sports games and provides good reference for the trial of similar cases in the future.

In this case, Yaoyu argued that it secured the exclusive broadcasting right of DOTA2 Asia Championships in Mainland China under an agreement, responsible for the execution and management of the event. Douyu's act of capturing the event screens while watching it on the client side to make real-time broadcasting plus anchor comments, without authorization, infringed upon its lawful rights and interests. After the trial, Shanghai Intellectual Property Court held that according to the principle clause - Article 2 of the Anti-unfair Competition Law, live broadcasting of online games is a business item for event organizers to create business opportunities and obtain commercial benefits, whose lawful rights and interests should be protected by law. The live broadcasting of the event involved without authorization of the organizer was unjustified apparently as it violated the principle of good faith in the Anti-unfair Competition Law and generally recognized business ethics, damaged the lawful rights and interests of the organizer and disturbed the market competition order. Hence, Douyu's act constituted unfair competition.