“马上玩 App”不正当竞争纠纷案

  Case Analysis

Hangzhou Longfun Internet Technology Co., Ltd. v. Beijing iQIYI Science & Technology Co., Ltd.

“马上玩 App”不正当竞争纠纷案

Lower Court Docket No.: 37522, first instance (初), civil case (民), (2018) Beijing Haidian District People's Court (京0108)

Docket No.: 3263, second instance (终), civil case (民), (2019) Beijing Intellectual Property Court (京73)

一审案号：（2018）京0108民初37522号

二审案号：（2019）京73民终3263号

Basic Facts

案情介绍

Defendant-Appellant: Hangzhou Longfun Internet Technology Co., Ltd. ("Longfun") and Hangzhou Longene Technology Co., Ltd. ("Longene")

Plaintiff-Appellee: Beijing iQIYI Science & Technology Co., Ltd. ("iQIYI")

上诉人（原审被告）：杭州龙魂网络科技有限公司（简称龙魂公司）、杭州龙境科技有限公司（简称龙境公司）

被上诉人（原审原告）：北京爱奇艺科技有限公司（简称爱奇艺公司）

iQIYI is the operator of vip.iqiyi.com and the iQIYI App. Users who have paid the appropriate consideration to become iQIYI VIP members are able to enjoy different membership privileges such as skipping ads and watching VIP videos. However, the use rights obtained by a member cannot be transferred, lent, rented, sold or shared to others. iQIYI found that Longfun and Longene had illegally rented out iQIYI VIP accounts based on time slots in the "Play Now" app ("App involved") through technical means, so that their users could obtain iQIYI VIP video services without paying iQIYI. iQIYI believed that the acts involved in this case conducted by Longfun and Longene had, on the one hand, diverted traffic by attracting users to watch videos, causing a decrease in the download of the iQIYI App, and on the other hand, restricted some of the functions of the iQIYI App, leading to a decrease in user experience and damaging the legitimate rights and interests of iQIYI. Therefore, iQIYI appealed to the Beijing Haidian District People's Court, demanding Longfun and Longene to eliminate the impact and jointly and severally compensate the economic losses and reasonable expenses which totaled RMB 3 million.

爱奇艺公司是“爱奇艺网”和“爱奇艺”App的经营者，用户支付相应对价成为爱奇艺VIP会员后，能够享受跳过广告和观看VIP视频等会员特权，但会员所获得的使用权不得转让、出借、出租、售卖或分享给他人使用。爱奇艺公司发现龙魂公司、龙境公司在“马上玩”App（简称涉案App）中，通过技术手段将爱奇艺VIP帐号非法分时出租，使其用户无需向爱奇艺公司付费即可获得爱奇艺VIP视频服务。爱奇艺公司认为，龙魂公司、龙境公司所实施的涉案行为一方面通过吸引用户观看视频进行导流，造成爱奇艺App下载量降低，另一方面对爱奇艺App部分功能进行限制，导致用户体验下降，损害了其合法权益，故诉至北京市海淀区人民法院，要求龙魂公司、龙境公司消除影响，并连带赔偿其经济损失及合理开支共计300万元。

The court of first instance held that Longfun and Longene had actually provided iQIYI VIP video content by renting out VIP accounts based on time slots, which was a malicious "free-riding" act on the important business resources of iQIYI, and Longfun and Longene had profited from the accused acts. Also, after iQIYI sent notice of the infringement, they had changed their versions and used other forms to make their acts more hidden, implying subjective malice. At the same time, Longfun's and Longene's use of cloud streaming technology to restrict the interface of the iQIYI App in their cloud-based products had misled iQIYI's potential users to misidentification and affected their experience of using the iQIYI App. The acts of Longfun and Longene had constituted unfair competition. In summary, the court ruled in the first instance to support all of iQIYI's claims in accordance with the law.

一审法院认为，龙魂公司、龙境公司通过分时出租V I P帐号而实际提供爱奇艺VIP视频内容，系对爱奇艺公司重要经营资源的恶意“搭便车”行为，龙魂公司、龙境公司通过被诉行为获利，且在爱奇艺公司发送侵权通知后通过改版等形式使其行为更具有隐蔽性，具有主观恶意。同时，龙魂公司、龙境公司利用云流化技术对其云端产品中的爱奇艺App界面进行限制的行为，使爱奇艺公司的潜在用户产生误认并影响其对爱奇艺App的使用体验。龙魂公司、龙境公司的行为构成不正当竞争。综上，法院一审判决依法支持了爱奇艺公司的全部诉讼请求。

Longfun and Longene refused to accept the first instance judgment and appealed to Beijing Intellectual Property Court. The court of second instance rejected the appeal and upheld the original judgment.

龙魂公司、龙境公司不服一审判决，向北京知识产权法院提起上诉。二审法院判决：驳回上诉，维持原判。

Typical Significance

典型意义

This is a typical case of a new type of Internet-based unfair competition acts arising from ineligible time-slot rental of VIP accounts of a video website.

本案是因擅自分时段出租视频网站VIP账号而引发的新型网络不正当竞争典型案例。

Nowadays, online video services have become an indispensable type of services in the cultural and entertainment lives of consumers of all ages, and on-demand attention to online videos has been an important source of user traffic for the internet industry. This case has accurately applied Article 12 "Internet-specific article" of the Anti-Unfair Competition Law, and considered the act of unfairly taking video resources of others to gain user traffic under the banner of "sharing economy", as well as the act of using technical means to restrict the function of others' online video services. They were considered malicious "free-riding" acts that were free-riding the business model of another and lacked value increment and were able to operate normally by obstructing and disrupting the internet services legally provided by others.

当前，网络视频服务已成为各年龄段消费者文化娱乐生活中必不可少的服务类型，对网络视频的点播关注已是网络行业用户流量的重要来源。本案准确适用《反不正当竞争法》第十二条“互联网专条”，对名为“分享经济”、实为不正当攫取他人视频资源并以此获得用户流量，以及采用技术手段限制他人网络视频服务功能的行为，认定为属于寄附于他人商业模式下缺乏价值增量的恶意“搭便车”行为，通过妨碍、破坏他人合法提供的网络服务而得以正常运行。

Through the effective regulation of new types of unfair competition acts under the context of internet competition environment, this case encourages operators to operate in good faith, maintain the normal competition order in the internet market, promote the healthy, orderly and standardized development of the internet video industry, which provides important regulatory guidelines for the rapidly developing internet industry in China. The judgment in this case also provides useful references for similar cases regarding the evaluation and judgment criteria for the acts of internet operators. This case was selected as one of the "2020 Top Ten Cases of Judicial Protection of Intellectual Property Rights of Beijing Courts".

本案通过对网络竞争环境下新型不正当竞争行为的有效规制，鼓励经营者诚信经营，维护网络市场正常的竞争秩序，促进网络视频行业的健康、有序、规范发展，为我国快速发展的网络行业提供了重要的规范指引。本案判决亦对此类案件就网络经营者行为的评价和判断标准提供了有益借鉴。本案入选“2020年度北京法院知识产权司法保护十大案例”。

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