US injunction on the Horizon? Sony claims Tencent video game is a “slavish clone” of Sony’s Horizon series

Sony is suing the Chinese corporation Tencent in a California court, claiming that Tencent’s video game “Light of Motiram” is a “slavish clone” of Sony’s “Horizon” series of sci-fi video games. 

The claim is for copyright and trade mark infringement; Sony aims to prevent the release of Light of Motiram.

This post briefly summarises key elements of the complaint filed by Sony (see here). 

Copyright

On the copyright side, Sony claims that several protectable elements have been slavishly copied, including: setting, narrative, tribal characters, the main character and various “machines” from the fictional world.

Some of the side-by-side’s included in Sony’s claim are shown below. The left column depicts imagery from Sony’s Horizon series, the right depicts promotional material for Tencent’s Light of Motiram.

In the UK at least, a video game is likely to be made up of many separate IP rights; it may be that all, none or only some of these are infringed by a game that seems highly similar. This reflects Sony’s claim as filed.

For example, the following rights may subsist in a given video game (contrast this position with that of a novel, which would typically be protected as one literary copyright work):

• The underlying computer code protected as a literary copyright work,
• The music, protected as a musical copyright work,
• Individual frames of the video game, protected as artistic works,
• Each character may be separately protected as artistic works,
• Maps or other graphics, protected as graphic works,
• The graphical user interfaces of the game, protected as graphic works,
• Performance rights in voice-over work,
• A script, protected as a literary or dramatic work,
• Goodwill for the purposes of passing off relating to distinctive elements of the game (see below),
• Design rights in virtual designs of eg. machines, and/or
• Trade marks for character or place names.

“Trade mark” infringement

Sony also claims that the main character from the Horizon series, Aloy, is inherently distinctive and amounts to a “character trademark”. They argue that Tencent’s use of a lookalike character amounts to an infringement of that “character trademark”.

The argument runs as follows: 

• Aloy has become distinctive of Sony; 
• Tencent is using a lookalike of Aloy, and the similarities between the lookalike and Aloy is likely to confuse consumers into a belief that there is a connection between Tencent / Light of Motiram and Sony; and 
• this conduct is causing injury to Sony.

There are now reports that Tencent has updated its Light of Motiram Steam page, removing a number of the screenshots and trailers.

It will be interesting to see what implications, if any, Tencent’s subsequent actions have on Sony’s position in this matter. We will be keeping a close eye on proceedings as they progress. Watch this space.