The Walt Disney Co has taken three Chinese companies to court over concerns that the local animation production The Autobots copied elements from Disney’s own hit movie Cars.
A court in Shanghai held a hearing on Tuesday, a Disney spokeswoman confirmed to Reuters.
The dispute was over “copyright infringement” and “unfair competition,” according to a notice on the Shanghai Pudong New Area People’s Court website.
Disney is making a major push into China with the recent opening of a $5.5 billion theme park in Shanghai, its first on the Chinese mainland. Its animated movies including Zootopia and Big Hero 6 have been big box-office hits in the country.
But Disney faces tough competition in the market from local theme park developers, popular Chinese animation as well as counterfeits from merchandise to fake Disney hotels. Chinese authorities have promised to give Disney “special” protection for its intellectual property rights (IPR).
The Autobots drew public comment in China when it was released in 2015, with some pointing out similarities with Disney’s 2006 film Cars starring Owen Wilson and its sequel in 2011. Cars 3 is set to be released next year.
Zuo Jianlong, the director of The Autobots for production company Blue MTV, told Reuters in an interview on Wednesday he is “relaxed” about a potential ruling.
“Lots of people online have talked about plagiarism, but it seems from the legal side that the matter is quite clear,” he said. “At root there is no plagiaristic behavior.”
“If you put the two films side-by-side to compare them, then you will know they are completely different.”
Disney declined to comment further on the case.
The three Chinese companies involved in the suit are production company Blue MTV, media company Beijing G-Point and online content platform PPLive Inc.
China’s box office hit around 45 billion yuan ($6.8 billion) in 2015. Read more….
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