Shanghai court orders app owners to pay iQiyi for hacking

On August 24, the Shanghai Pudong New Area People's Court ordered the operators of a popular Android application to pay 100,000 yuan (approximate $15,000) in damages to a popular video hosting website, iQiyi. The app operators were made to make this payment after it was discovered their app blocked advertisements from the popular site.

According to the court report, this case was the first time an intellectual property infringement case concerned video website advertisements reached the court in question's chambers. 

The operators were able to block iQiyi's ads by using an app called MoreTV, which is available for set-top boxes, as well as smart televisions and smart phones.

The two operators, Qianshan Network Technology and Yueguan Network technology, were also ordered to pay an additional 50,000 yuan in attorney's fees. Beyond that, a court injunction is forcing them to host a statement on their homepages for 72 hours admitting their guilt in cultivating unfair competition.

The main argument of the case centered around whether or not the operators were deliberating blocking iQiyi's ads, as their attorneys claimed it was an unintended side effect of their web-crawlers, and that ads and videos were sent as separate files. iQiyi countered this argument by claiming that their ads were heavily encrypted, and would only be avoidable if hacked. 

iQiyi originally demanded 1 million yuan in damages.

No matter where you are with your company, it's important to contact a skilled business attorney as soon as possible. A lawyer can help protect your rights in case of litigation, and get you just compensation.

Categorised in: Business Law

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