Tencent obtains interim injunctions for Infringement of Broadcasting Right of the Olympic Games

Tencent is an authorized broadcaster of the Tokyo Olympics and has the legal rights to broadcast Olympic events. Recently, Tencent sued four defendants to the Tianjin Third Intermediate People’s Court claiming that they illegally broadcast the Olympic events. Tencent argued that the Olympic events had high popularity and a short-cycle, so infringers could forward and spread a large number of short videos of the games in a short period of time, taking a large amount of traffic and obtaining illegal benefits. Therefore, Tencent filed a request for conduct preservation (that is, an interim injunction).

After receiving the request, the court conducted a thorough review of the ownership information, the alleged unfair competition and the urgency and necessity of taking conduct preservation measures. It was found that the website operated by the defendant provided a large number of links to the websites of pirated event programs and set up special sections such as “Olympic Zone, Olympic Hot Sections and Hot Events”. In addition, the website involved also encouraged users to upload pirated content related to the Tokyo Olympics by distributing user milestones, which constituted as unfair competition with malicious intent. The court found that there was urgency to grant Tencent’s application for conduct preservation and made a ruling within 49 hours of filing, requiring the four defendants to immediately stop the infringement by deleting or blocking the infringing videos and website. Lexology