Founder sues US firm over copyright

In an unusual move, Chinese technology firm Founder Electronics filed a suit against United States-based game developer Blizzard Entertainment for copyright infringement, and two mainland distributors.

Founder sued Blizzard as well as its distributors The9 and Qingwentuwen, for 100 million yuan, the highest amount of damages so far sought in an intellectual property lawsuit in the mainland.

The case also differs from most other intellectual property lawsuits in which foreign firms were plaintiffs against domestic companies.

'This case marks a growing awareness of intellectual property rights in the mainland,' said Jacky Huang, an internet analyst at researcher IDC.

Mainland courts have seen an almost 50 per cent annual increase in the number of cases concerning intellectual property rights violations since the country joined the World Trade Organisation. Last year, 353 such cases were settled, up 52.16 per cent from the previous year, according the Supreme People's Court.

Founder claimed that the Chinese version of World of Warcraft, Blizzard's popular online game, used five types of fonts that it developed without a proper licence.