Court orders payment
A Chinese court has issued an initial ruling in favor of miHoYo in a lawsuit over alleged misappropriation of trade secrets tied to Honkai: Star Rail. The court ordered two defendants to stop their infringing behavior and to pay 1 million yuan, approximately $150,000, in joint damages. The decision has reportedly taken effect.
Leaked unreleased game content
miHoYo said the case involved unauthorized access to test data from an unreleased version of the game. According to the company, one defendant, identified as Yang, ran a channel called Coffee Forest on a Tencent-related community platform. Yang allegedly shared unreleased test data and tutorials that allowed other users to configure their games so they could view content that had not been publicly released.
A second defendant, identified as Guo, was accused of acquiring similar test data through improper means. He allegedly extracted and posted online assets connected to the game, including character models, skill information, and gameplay footage. miHoYo claimed that the conduct harmed its rights and interests and filed suit, seeking both an injunction and compensation.
Ruling and remedies
The court found that both defendants had infringed miHoYo's trade secrets. In addition to the monetary award, they were ordered to immediately cease the infringing activity. They must also publish statements on their Bilibili accounts and QQ Video channel pages for 30 consecutive days.
Broader legal efforts
The outcome continues a pattern of legal action by miHoYo and its subsidiary COGNOSPHERE against leakers connected to popular titles such as Genshin Impact and Honkai: Star Rail. Earlier this year, a person who livestreamed unreleased footage in a Discord server was ordered to pay about $16,500 in damages. The company has also sought the removal of leaked material from sites that aggregate such information.
Comments
Leave a comment