The court pointed out the similar resemblance of the eyes, mouth and body colors of the car in “The Autobots” movie poster to the Disney-produced film. (Photo : Weronika’s Pictures/YouTube)
The Shanghai Pudong New Area People’s Court fined on Thursday Bluemtv, a Chinese movie producer, and G-Point, a film distributor, 1.35 million yuan ($190,000) for making the film “The Autobots” which is an illegal copy of “Cars,” a movie produced by Disney and Pixar Animation.
Besides the fine in the copyright lawsuit, the court also ordered Bluemtv and G-Point to stop infringing the copyright of the Disney film in a rare win for a foreign company. After “The Autobots” was released in July 2015, it earned 6 million yuan ($863,000) gross receipt, Variety reported.
Decision in 6 Months
The case was resolved six months after Disney filed the copyright infringement lawsuit in July. The court found Bluemtv and G-Point guilty of using illegally the characters and posters from Disney. By using the title “Autobots” in Chinese language which sounds similar to “Cars,” the company engaged in unfair competition, the court said.
The court pointed to the similar resemblance of the eyes, mouth and body colors of the car in “The Autobots” movie poster to the Disney-produced film. It also cited that K1 and K2 in the Chinese movie had a lot of similarities with Lightning McQueen and Francesco Bernouli in the “Cars” films shown in 2006 and 2011, Shanghadaily reported.
Director Says He Did Not Copy
But Zhuo Jianrong, director of “The Autobots,” insisted he did not copy the Disney movie which he never has seen, but he developed the characters from real cars. Zhuo even plans to make a sequel to the film but he has no funds yet for the new venture. He plans to appeal the court’s decision.
