Recently, the “No.1 case of fan fiction” has reached the final verdict on infringement and unfair competition to rewrite classic martial arts characters created by others into campus novels and sell them without permission. 

On the ground of copyright infringement and unfair competition, the Guangzhou Intellectual Property Court ordered the defendant Jiang Nan to immediately stop the unfair competition behavior, make a public apology to eliminate the impact, compensate for economic losses of 1.68 million yuan and reasonable expenses of 200,000 yuan for stopping the infringement behavior, and ordered two publishing companies (Beijing United Publishing Company and Beijing Jingdian Bowei Company) to jointly compensate 330,000 yuan. The court also specified that if the fan fiction work needs to be reprinted, economic compensation at 30% of the reprint royalty income shall be paid.

Back in 2015, the world famous Wuxia novelist Cha Liangyong (pen name: Jin Yong) found that the names of the characters in the fan fiction novel “The Boys in This Time” were all derived from his four works “The Legend of the Condor Heroes”, “Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils”, “The Smiling, Proud Wanderer” and “The Return of the Condor Heroes”, and the relationships between the characters, the personality traits of the characters and the plot were substantially similar to his works. The fan fiction was written by Yang under the pen name “Jiang Nan”, and was published by Beijing United Publishing Company, distributed by Beijing Jingdian Bowei Company, and sold in large quantities in the market.

Cha believed that Yang had plagiarized his classic characters, tailored similar plots to his works in different environments, adapted his works without indicating the source of adaptation, tampered with the image of his characters without authorization, hence infringed Cha Liangyong’s adaptation right, authorship right, the right to protect the integrity of works. 

At the same time, Cha's works have a high reputation. Yang had profited hugely from using the original elements of his works, hindering Cha's use of his original works, which constitutes unfair competition. In addition, Beijing United Publishing Company and Beijing Jingdian Bowei Company failed to perform their duty of reviewing the infringement situation, and should bear joint and several liability for compensation and stopping infringement. 

On such ground, Cha filed a lawsuit with Tianhe District People’s Court of Guangzhou City, requesting each defendant to immediately stop infringing Cha's copyright and unfair competition behavior, destroy inventory books, and make a public apology to eliminate the impact, and that Yang shall compensate for economic losses of 5 million yuan and reasonable expenses of 200,000 yuan for rights protection, and Beijing United Publishing Company and Beijing Jingdian Bowei Company shall be jointly and severally liable for more than 1 million yuan caused by publishing commemorative edition.

After the first-instance judgment, Cha Liangyong, Yang and Beijing Jingdian Bowei Company appealed to Guangzhou Intellectual Property Court.

The long debated “No.1 fan fiction case” had recently received the final judgment, and the court deemed that the alleged infringement behavior constituted copyright infringement and unfair competition. The court ordered defendant Yang to immediately stop unfair competition behavior, make a public apology to eliminate the impact, compensate Jin Yong for economic losses of 1.68 million yuan and reasonable expenses of 200,000 yuan for stopping infringement behavior. Beijing United Publishing Company and Beijing Jingdian Bowei Company jointly and severally liable for 330,000 yuan.