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source: guangming online, the paper, red star news

the second-instance verdict of jay chou's lawsuit against netease's "tianxia 3" for unfair competition is out.

recently, the second instance of the lawsuit filed by jay chou and jvr music co., ltd. against guangzhou netease computer system co., ltd. and other related entities was announced. according to the verdict obtained by the reporter,the second-instance court upheld the original judgment of the first instance and determined that jay chou and jvr’s grounds for appeal were not valid.

the court determined that the hot search topics, entries, and promotional reports related to jay chou's new album were extremely common, and that tianxia 3's weibo reposts and lucky draws at its own expense to give back to players were not profit-making in nature and did not violate the principles of good faith and business ethics. it was difficult for the public to associate jay chou with the game in the form of endorsements or authorizations, and the alleged behavior of tianxia 3 did not constitute unfair competition.

the judgment shows that the second instance held that jay chou and jvr failed to provide evidence to prove that netease and netease leihuo obtained competitive benefits through the above-mentioned behaviors, or seized the economic benefits generated by jay chou and jvr through the release of albums and holding concerts. judging from the comments of relevant consumers on platforms such as weibo, they did not have a corresponding relationship or confusion between the goods and services provided by netease and netease leihuo and jay chou and jvr. as a well-known public figure, jay chou should have a certain tolerance obligation for topics mentioned on the internet.

in july 2022, jay chou released his new album "the greatest work" after 6 years, which triggered a craze for raffles and digital albums across the entire network. many game products such as "tianxia 3" spontaneously organized weibo raffles to give back to users.

three days later, jvr music's official blog issued a statement, saying, "the company emphasizes that it has never authorized the game to use jay chou's music, nor has it authorized it to give away jay chou's concert tickets. the company's activities have nothing to do with jvr music or jay chou, and are not officially authorized activities."

on march 19, 2024, information related to "jay chou lost the first trial lawsuit against netease" became a hot search and ranked first on the hot search list.

it is reported that the court analyzed and judged the key points of the case, such as whether the defendant's behavior constituted unfair competition, and finally determined that all the accused behaviors of the defendant "tianxia 3" did not constitute unfair competition, and rejected all the litigation requests of jvr, including the claim of 2.05 million yuan.

regarding jvr's claim that the event held by tianxia 3 in july 2023 to give away jay chou's new album to players was not officially authorized and was an act of unfair competition, the court determined that weibo forwarding lottery was a common activity, and a large number of social media accounts held events to forward and draw jay chou's albums or concert tickets. it is not easy for the public to mistakenly believe that the lottery draw party has a specific relationship with jay chou such as endorsement.

at the same time, the court also rejected jvr's claim that tianxia 3 sold game props made from elements of jay chou's new album in the game. the court determined that the "game props" were only "vouchers" for album redemption, and that the activity was only open to veteran gamers above level 20, and did not attract new players or generate profits, and therefore did not constitute unfair competition.