Bee Leader vs Flappy Bee
In the industry of gaming mobile applications with enviable consistency, there are cases of identified violations of someone's copyright. Of course, we can recall examples of the confrontation between EA and Zynga, the conflict between King and 6Waves and other matters. But at the present time I wanted to highlight a remarkable case from New Zealand, where one of the cases of plagiarism was quite bright and revealing. The following text is a translation of last year’s history, set out by lawyers who helped the copyright holder to eliminate the identified violations of his copyright.
New Zealand Game Industry
This may seem a little known fact, but New Zealand has a growing industry of high-yield and world-famous gaming studios. New Zealand is one of the foremost countries where new technologies and digital distribution, such as online and mobile games, are being pioneered. In 2013, mobile games created in New Zealand were downloaded over 130 million times, 6 games reached the Top 10 in the Apple iTunes App Store and 3 games were selected by Apple on their award list “Best of 2013”.
In 2012, Flightless, a successful New Zealand-based indie design and gaming studio, flew to the top of one of Apple's ratings with its iPhone and iPad game called Bee Leader, which is a bee collecting nectar at various levels of the game. Bee Leader was announced by Flightless in the global App Store in mid-2012 and was a great success, which was later awarded the App Store Best of 2012 and the App Store Free App of the Week in May 2013. The game became an app Number one in 6 countries, entered the “Top 10 iPhone App” in 53 countries and the “Top 10 iPhone App” in 87 countries.
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Earlier this year, Bee Leader, created by Flightless, became the object of copying a single developer from Slovakia, who copied the main aspects of the images and branding of the game. Actually, this story is just about that.
Bee Leader vs Flappy Bee
While Bee Leader was available on the App Store, the new Flappy Bee gaming app was released by the indicated Slovak developer. Flappy Bee was an application that was created to benefit from the success of another application - Flappy Bird, which had already become an Internet sensation by that time. Flappy Bee wanted to emulate the gameplay of Flappy Bird and Flightless didn’t bother it. However, in pursuit of the market, the creator of Flappy Bee copied the Bee Leader application icon and its descriptive text from the App Store page on the app.
In the fast-growing industry of mobile applications on the account every day. The highly addictive toy Flappy Bird was downloaded, according to some reports, more than 50 million times a month, and its creator earned about 50 thousand dollars a day from the sale of in-game advertising. As soon as Flappy Bird was removed from the App Store by its owner, Flappy Bee showed a rapid growth in the number of installations and reached fourth place among the most downloaded applications in the App Store. Given the number of downloads, Flightless was forced to act quickly in order to eliminate violations in relation to its own Bee Leader application and to maintain a reputation that could be stained by the success of the Flappy Bee game. We worked with Flightless to quickly eliminate violations in relation to the icon and text description of the Bee Leader mobile app.
Preparation of copyright infringement claims
Since Flightless did not have any registered trademarks in New Zealand, or in Europe or the United States, one of the rights protection options was filing a copyright claim. The image used as the Flappy Bee app icon was identical to the Flightless Bee Leader game icon. For Flappy Bee, a nearly identical description was also used, which at that time was already used by Flightless for its application.
We immediately determined that the images underlying the image of the Flappy Bee application icon and the text description of the application were made by the efforts, decisions and skills of the Flightless employees. Thus, we established the originality and ownership of copyright in drawings and text description as works of art and literature, respectively. Further, a comparison of the results of the works embodied in the Flappy Bee game made it clear that the Flappy Bee application reproduced the copyright objects owned by Flightless: in full with respect to a work of art and in substantial volume with respect to a work of literature. Taking into account the availability of the mobile application and its icon / text description on the App Store and (quoting the Court of Appeal [1]) “multiplicity of coincidences” between Flightless’s copyright objects and objects used in the Flappy Bee application, it was a fair assumption that the creator Flappy Bee has copied the copyright objects of Flightless. I am sure that we could prove the originality and ownership of copyrights, as well as the fact of violation in accordance with the Copyright Law of New Zealand, so the next task was to establish contact with the developer of the game Flappy Bee in order to oblige him to immediately replace the icon and make the necessary changes in the description of the application.
Ways to eliminate violations
For Flightless, there were two ways to eliminate the violation. The first allowed to initiate proceedings through the Portal for resolving disputes regarding the content published on Apple iTunes in order to achieve the removal in Flappy Bee of content that violated the company's copyrights. Like many online retailers (such as Google Play, TradeMe and eBay), Apple provides opportunities to resolve intellectual property disputes between users (including developers) of their App Store.
The second scenario was the possibility for Flightless to write directly to a Slovak developer and oblige him to make the necessary changes to his application to remove content that violates the rights of the company. Choosing this option, we prepared a letter demanding to stop and eliminate the violations for the creator of the Flappy Bee application. Taking into account the fact that copying of Flightless copyright objects occurred in Slovakia, and not in New Zealand, we prepared the text of our claim in accordance with the norms of Slovak legislation on copyright. A copyright infringement was also claimed in accordance with the New Zealand Copyright Act, as the company brought the copyrighted objects to public notice with the help of the New Zealand App Store.
This illustrates the benefits of using Flightless copyright law. The rights of a company to its copyright objects are protected in accordance with the Bern Convention and the WIPO Copyright Treaty of 1996 and on the territory of other states, including the Republic of Slovakia and the United States of America. The Copyright and Copyright Law of the Republic of Slovakia, 2003 provides copyright protection for works (including graphic and literary works) that are protected under international treaties to which Slovakia is a party (including Berne Convention and TRIPS Agreement). The rights granted by Flightless include, among others, the exclusive right to reproduce and make public the icons of your Bee Leader application.
Considering the Flightless rights to our works in the territory of Slovakia, we sent the developer a claim for the immediate elimination of the violations committed by them with respect to the Flightless copyright objects. Within a couple of days after the claim was received, the developer made an update of his application, removing the copyright objects of Flightless from it.
End of the game.
New Zealand Game Industry
This may seem a little known fact, but New Zealand has a growing industry of high-yield and world-famous gaming studios. New Zealand is one of the foremost countries where new technologies and digital distribution, such as online and mobile games, are being pioneered. In 2013, mobile games created in New Zealand were downloaded over 130 million times, 6 games reached the Top 10 in the Apple iTunes App Store and 3 games were selected by Apple on their award list “Best of 2013”.
In 2012, Flightless, a successful New Zealand-based indie design and gaming studio, flew to the top of one of Apple's ratings with its iPhone and iPad game called Bee Leader, which is a bee collecting nectar at various levels of the game. Bee Leader was announced by Flightless in the global App Store in mid-2012 and was a great success, which was later awarded the App Store Best of 2012 and the App Store Free App of the Week in May 2013. The game became an app Number one in 6 countries, entered the “Top 10 iPhone App” in 53 countries and the “Top 10 iPhone App” in 87 countries.
')
Earlier this year, Bee Leader, created by Flightless, became the object of copying a single developer from Slovakia, who copied the main aspects of the images and branding of the game. Actually, this story is just about that.
Bee Leader vs Flappy Bee
While Bee Leader was available on the App Store, the new Flappy Bee gaming app was released by the indicated Slovak developer. Flappy Bee was an application that was created to benefit from the success of another application - Flappy Bird, which had already become an Internet sensation by that time. Flappy Bee wanted to emulate the gameplay of Flappy Bird and Flightless didn’t bother it. However, in pursuit of the market, the creator of Flappy Bee copied the Bee Leader application icon and its descriptive text from the App Store page on the app.
In the fast-growing industry of mobile applications on the account every day. The highly addictive toy Flappy Bird was downloaded, according to some reports, more than 50 million times a month, and its creator earned about 50 thousand dollars a day from the sale of in-game advertising. As soon as Flappy Bird was removed from the App Store by its owner, Flappy Bee showed a rapid growth in the number of installations and reached fourth place among the most downloaded applications in the App Store. Given the number of downloads, Flightless was forced to act quickly in order to eliminate violations in relation to its own Bee Leader application and to maintain a reputation that could be stained by the success of the Flappy Bee game. We worked with Flightless to quickly eliminate violations in relation to the icon and text description of the Bee Leader mobile app.
Preparation of copyright infringement claims
Since Flightless did not have any registered trademarks in New Zealand, or in Europe or the United States, one of the rights protection options was filing a copyright claim. The image used as the Flappy Bee app icon was identical to the Flightless Bee Leader game icon. For Flappy Bee, a nearly identical description was also used, which at that time was already used by Flightless for its application.
We immediately determined that the images underlying the image of the Flappy Bee application icon and the text description of the application were made by the efforts, decisions and skills of the Flightless employees. Thus, we established the originality and ownership of copyright in drawings and text description as works of art and literature, respectively. Further, a comparison of the results of the works embodied in the Flappy Bee game made it clear that the Flappy Bee application reproduced the copyright objects owned by Flightless: in full with respect to a work of art and in substantial volume with respect to a work of literature. Taking into account the availability of the mobile application and its icon / text description on the App Store and (quoting the Court of Appeal [1]) “multiplicity of coincidences” between Flightless’s copyright objects and objects used in the Flappy Bee application, it was a fair assumption that the creator Flappy Bee has copied the copyright objects of Flightless. I am sure that we could prove the originality and ownership of copyrights, as well as the fact of violation in accordance with the Copyright Law of New Zealand, so the next task was to establish contact with the developer of the game Flappy Bee in order to oblige him to immediately replace the icon and make the necessary changes in the description of the application.
Ways to eliminate violations
For Flightless, there were two ways to eliminate the violation. The first allowed to initiate proceedings through the Portal for resolving disputes regarding the content published on Apple iTunes in order to achieve the removal in Flappy Bee of content that violated the company's copyrights. Like many online retailers (such as Google Play, TradeMe and eBay), Apple provides opportunities to resolve intellectual property disputes between users (including developers) of their App Store.
The second scenario was the possibility for Flightless to write directly to a Slovak developer and oblige him to make the necessary changes to his application to remove content that violates the rights of the company. Choosing this option, we prepared a letter demanding to stop and eliminate the violations for the creator of the Flappy Bee application. Taking into account the fact that copying of Flightless copyright objects occurred in Slovakia, and not in New Zealand, we prepared the text of our claim in accordance with the norms of Slovak legislation on copyright. A copyright infringement was also claimed in accordance with the New Zealand Copyright Act, as the company brought the copyrighted objects to public notice with the help of the New Zealand App Store.
This illustrates the benefits of using Flightless copyright law. The rights of a company to its copyright objects are protected in accordance with the Bern Convention and the WIPO Copyright Treaty of 1996 and on the territory of other states, including the Republic of Slovakia and the United States of America. The Copyright and Copyright Law of the Republic of Slovakia, 2003 provides copyright protection for works (including graphic and literary works) that are protected under international treaties to which Slovakia is a party (including Berne Convention and TRIPS Agreement). The rights granted by Flightless include, among others, the exclusive right to reproduce and make public the icons of your Bee Leader application.
Considering the Flightless rights to our works in the territory of Slovakia, we sent the developer a claim for the immediate elimination of the violations committed by them with respect to the Flightless copyright objects. Within a couple of days after the claim was received, the developer made an update of his application, removing the copyright objects of Flightless from it.
End of the game.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/375473/
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