Chinese software company sues US Blizzard FOR IP infringement

October 11, 2007

Beijing-based Founder Electronic Co., Ltd. has filed a lawsuit against California-based Blizzard Entertainment for illegally using its Chinese font database and demanded 100 million yuan in compensation.
The Beijing firm, a subsidiary of Founder Group, claimed that the US company used five fonts in the popular online fantasy game World of Warcraft from Founder’s database without authorization.

The Beijing Municipal People’s Supreme Court has accepted the case, which involves the largest amount of compensation subject filed by Chinese company against U.S. company.

Founder estimated that it lost earnings of up to more than 100 million yuan.

Founder Electronic is one of the largest providers of Chinese font database products. The Founder Word Database is one of the important parts of Founder Electronic Publicity System thereof. Originally developed by Professor Wang in 1974, it has acquired lots of awards nationally or internationally. The Founder Word Database is one of the high technology products with self-dominated IP rights and national characteristics.

Blizzard Entertainment is a world-known company of game development and operation. World of Warcraft, one of its online games which is developed in 2003, takes over 70% of its profit obtained from the game operation.