Why is Tencent's most powerful thing not WeChat, but legal affairs?

Battle Hunter is a game very similar to Dungeons and Warriors, but the reason for Tencent's lawsuit this time is not "plagiarism" but "trademark infringement".

Tencent said in court that when Apple's mobile browser searched for "dnf mobile games" or "Dungeons and Warriors mobile games", although the top commercial promotion links in the search results were displayed as "DNF mobile games" or "Dungeons and Warriors mobile games", the top websites in the search results were all 4399 operation management. After clicking, the webpage will jump to the download page of the fighting hunter.

Tencent believes that 4399' s behavior is to increase its own game downloads, increase its income and mislead the public by borrowing the popularity of the trademark Dungeon and Warrior, so that the relevant public will mistake the online game of Fighting Hunter for the online game of Dungeon and Warrior.

In this case, Tencent's legal department did not choose "game plagiarism", which is difficult to judge and define, but chose trademark infringement and finally got compensation.

During the trial, the more ideas put forward by one party are accepted by the judge, the higher the probability of winning the case, and Tencent can often persuade the judge to accept some ideas beyond the standard.

A few years ago, the legendary mobile phone mobile game developed by Mu Tong Science and Technology was launched overseas. In order to avoid competition with the glory of the king, a subsidiary of Tencent, Mu Tong Company made a strategic and legal evasive design: the game was not launched in Chinese mainland, but only launched overseas through Apple and Google App Store.

This strategy was effective at first. Tencent's overseas lawsuit against Mu Tong was rejected by the US court on the grounds of conflict of jurisdiction. Tencent then launched a second wave of litigation in Shenzhen.

Generally speaking, Shenzhen courts should not have jurisdiction over a game that has never been operated in China. In order to establish a connection with Chinese mainland's "Mobile Legend" game, Tencent proved that it can use the third-party VPN software to obtain and log in to "Mobile Legend" through Shenzhen VPN.

Because VPN software belongs to the control technology in China, it is generally only used for internal office work of enterprises, whether it is legal to log in online games with VPN is a vague area. Tencent's way of obtaining evidence has caused a lot of controversy in the legal field.

However, this opinion was finally adopted by the court.

Many people suspect that there is something fishy about the high success rate of large companies in lawsuits, but in fact, as soon as large companies conclude contracts, many loopholes are blocked. In other words, Tencent can win, not only because it has done enough work in court. With only one contract, Tencent can often defeat the enemy with one move. For example, Tencent's open platform developer agreement mentioned above is enough to block opponents in Nanshan District Court.

A legal practitioner of a central enterprise in Zhihu bluntly said that contracts used by big companies like Tencent are structured texts, and dozens of law firms may review them word for word, so once a dispute arises, it is highly probable that the lawsuit will be won.

Previously, the TV series "The Joy of Life in The Untamed" was broadcast on Tencent. For users who have already purchased members, Tencent introduced the setting of paying in advance to watch the finale, which made many people fall for it. But in fact, in the relevant user agreement of Tencent, it has been stated that if you do not agree to modify this agreement, you can stop using this service. If you continue to use this service, it will be deemed that you have accepted all the modifications of this agreement.

There are many such clauses in the user agreement of tencent games's the glory of the king. It can be said that possible situations are considered in advance, but in most cases, users will not read them carefully at all. In the event of a dispute, Tencent can get away with it.

I don't know the composition of Tencent's legal department, but in 20 19, a report about Tencent becoming the first batch of private enterprise lawyers in the Ministry of Justice mentioned that Tencent's legal team has more than 400 people, more than half of whom have many years of legal experience, actively exploring in the fields of data compliance, network security and privacy protection, and engaged in cutting-edge theoretical research in the field of Internet law.

According to public data, by the end of 20 19, Tencent1* * had 62,885 employees. At first glance, the team of several hundred people may not seem too big, but it has surpassed the entire staff team of many companies.

As a matter of fact, not all people who are engaged in law-related work in big companies are from the Legal Department. Guo, senior vice president in charge of legal affairs of Tencent, leads an institution similar to Tencent Research Institute. According to official website, Tencent Research Institute is a think tank under Tencent. Focusing on Internet law, public policy, Internet economy, big data and other research directions, we will carry out diversified cooperation with domestic and foreign research institutions and think tanks, and continue to launch data and reports for the Internet industry, providing strong research support for academic research, industrial development and policy formulation.

Official website's team introduction page shows that Tencent Research Institute has absorbed many people from national ministries, courts, large law firms, multinational companies and domestic universities.

For example, jiang bo, vice president of Tencent Legal Department, is currently the director of the Legal Research Center of Tencent Research Institute. 20 1 1 12.3Q joined Tencent during the war, and previously served as the president of the intellectual property court of Guangdong Provincial High Court. An exclusive interview with jiang bo published in Chief Legal Officer magazine said, "The battle with Qihoo 360 is far more arduous and long than expected. He and the litigation team of the Ministry of Justice with only a dozen people led the progress of Tencent v. Qihoo 360 unfair competition case and Qihoo 360 v. Tencent monopoly case."

Another researcher has been engaged in civil and commercial trials in the court for many years and has rich experience in trial practice. Later, he joined Tencent Research Institute and engaged in Internet legal research. The research direction is platform responsibility, network security, network interview and credit supervision. Another researcher was a Beijing court judge and a senior legal adviser of a large Internet company.

There are also many people in the National Copyright Administration, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and the Academy of Social Sciences. Their research fields include intellectual property, anti-monopoly, telecom industry policy, network security, credit supervision and so on. It can be said that there are many talents and strong strength.

Thanks to Trump's "WeChat ban", Tencent fought a beautiful transnational lawsuit last year, but few people know that Tencent itself did not even participate in the lawsuit at the first time. It can sit behind the scenes simply by coordinating stakeholders to initiate litigation.

In August 2020, shortly after the release of the WeChat ban, the "American WeChat Users Association" jointly sponsored by American Chinese brought the Trump administration to court on the grounds that the WeChat ban issued by Trump was illegal and unconstitutional. 19 In September, on the eve of the entry into force of the WeChat ban, a judge in California stopped the Trump ban. Although the US government subsequently filed a motion to appeal the outcome of the case, it did not change the final result.

When the lawsuit was first filed, the American WeChat User Association claimed that it had nothing to do with Tencent. However, many people in the industry said that Tencent has at least maintained communication with the WeChat User Association. Tencent joined the case and became a joint litigant only after it was clear that it won the case in the first instance.

In this battle, Tencent began its influence in transnational litigation.

The last important criterion: has Tencent lost so many cases?

According to enterprise survey data, the number of cases related to Tencent has increased year by year in recent years, reaching an astonishing 8595 cases in 2020. However, when looking for news reports, only a few lost cases are famous.

The first is the QQ trademark competition case. In this case, although QQ chat software appeared earlier, Chery registered the QQ trademark of automobile first. When the two parties later went to court, Chery believed that Tencent knew that the "QQ" automobile trademark already existed, but applied for registration of the disputed trademark, which was suspected of infringement. The court finally supported Chery's claim.

The other is the infringement dispute between singer Li Zhi and the idol cultivation program "The Son of Tomorrow". The program was produced by the entertainment production company Wow Wow Wow, and Tencent, as the co-producer of the program, assumed joint and several liability. Because the facts are clear, Tencent and Wow received compensation of 200,000.

There is also the recent case of fake Laoganma defrauding Tencent. Battle-hardened veterans did not see through the fake official seal of Laoganma, which made people stunned.

Based on the above three cases, the QQ trademark competition case took a relatively long time and did not have a substantial impact on Tencent's main business. The dispute with Li Zhi lost money, but the loss was not great.

The biggest harm to Tencent is the Laoganma incident, in which the problem of large companies relying on judicial means has aroused widespread doubts. After the incident, Tencent took the initiative to apologize and took advantage of the situation to sell Meng. On the contrary, it turned a serious judicial case into a marketing event, and many passers-by did not lose money.

To sum up, Tencent's legal department is eye-catching in eight dimensions, and it can be regarded as a "famous lawyer" with outstanding eloquence, sharp defense angle and repeated victories. Whether it is active prosecution or passive response, Tencent Legal Department has established the status of "Nanshan Pizza Hut" in a series of tough battles. Tencent can be the largest company in China by market value. Besides WeChat, Tencent's legal department really plays an indispensable role.