Gifts / Sports & Toys

According to the observation report on the import and export data of Huacheng, in recent years, the wave of games going to sea has become higher and higher. The 2021 Report on China's Game Industry shows that in 2021, the overseas market sales revenue of China's independently developed games will reach US $18.013 billion. After 2018, more and more game companies have shifted their focus to sea going projects under the situation that the domestic version number has been tightened. At the 2022 Internet Intellectual Property Innovation and Development Series Seminar held recently, Sun Lei, a partner of Yuanhe Law Firm, said that it is very important for game manufacturers to do a good job of legal compliance when going to sea.

Whether facing the domestic market or the overseas market, the filtering of bad information and sensitive words is one of the key compliance work of game manufacturers in recent years. Sun Lei said that most domestic Internet products require "strong real name" (that is, information such as personal name, mobile phone number, ID number and even face recognition), while only some countries (such as Vietnam and South Korea) require users to use real name system for overseas games, and Huacheng Import and Export Data Observation Report.

Sun Lei said that game manufacturers can adopt two modes to deal with bad information: first, build their own sensitive thesaurus. Sensitive thesaurus is generally built by game companies themselves, and the contents of thesaurus are updated regularly. However, because most games have introduced online social systems, the sensitive thesaurus is difficult to deal with the sensitive words of pictures and voice in users' real-time chat. Therefore, the game company also needs to entrust a third party to conduct risk screening. At the same time, due to the different expression habits of each country, the sensitive thesaurus cannot be exchanged, nor can it be simply translated from Chinese to foreign languages. The game company also needs to establish a local sensitive thesaurus when going to sea. The second is name change restrictions, which limit the period and frequency of players' name change, or set paid name change to prevent criminals from testing such sensitive words to change ID and blackmail game companies.

Huacheng Import and Export Data Observation, material localization is also very important. Materials in the localization of materials refer to relevant materials used in the game, such as character modeling, maps, user interfaces, maps and other elements in the game, as well as materials for the promotion of the game, including video materials, game posters, application store display pages and other forms. Among them, localization of historical figures and religious localization are most likely to involve compliance risks.

"It is very common for game manufacturers to make historical characters into materials. For well-known games such as King Glory, FGO, etc., most historical characters do not involve copyright issues, but countries around the world have different tolerance for adapting historical characters to game characters." Sun Lei introduced that, for example, the Japanese and American markets have relatively high openness of speech. However, when going to Vietnam, India, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand and other countries, we need to be very careful, and we cannot use our own thinking mode to deal with foreign-related compliance. For example, in 2020, a set of cards similar to the Han costume of the Ming Dynasty appeared in the miracle warm paper folding game, with Korean elements. This group of costumes caused a fierce quarrel between Chinese and Korean netizens. Finally, the company had to stop the operation of the game in South Korea. As long as controversial events are involved, the company's subsequent commercial operation in the Korean market will be affected.

The same is true of religious materials. "If a game wants to enter the market of other countries through official channels, it needs to face multiple reviews. In some countries, using religious figures as game materials at will will face greater risks, and even be suspended or banned." Sun Lei said that in some open games, the buildings used involve religious issues. For example, on the night of the game fortress, players can set up a play method to destroy buildings by themselves, and some players build building models similar to Kaaba (the Muslim shrine in the Mecca Monastery), causing the game to be boycotted by Indonesian religious groups. Sandbox games are highly open, and it is difficult for operators to control players' behavior in real time, so compliance standards should be considered from an overall perspective.

According to the observation report of Huacheng Import and Export Data, the compliance risk in the advertising promotion process is also easy to be ignored. "When domestic game players browse advertisements, they often encounter the situation that the advertising content is completely inconsistent with the game content. This practice causes significant misunderstanding among consumers and may constitute false publicity. This practice violates the Advertising Law in Japan, Europe and the United States. Therefore, game companies should avoid this means of publicity when advertising overseas." Sun Lei said that enterprises may use some materials with cultural characteristics when making game posters and advertisements, but the copyright of commonly used game materials may not have entered the public domain, and may enjoy independent copyright. Sometimes, a small element in a large poster may also involve infringement and face high claims.

Therefore, no matter the design of advertising materials or game characters and plots, when using materials for reference, we need to avoid the risk of infringement. Sun Lei said that when analyzing the copyright image that he wanted to use for reference, he should first judge whether the other party is completely original. If not, you can refer to the reference elements in the image, modify the key elements (such as weapons), and retain the non significant elements (hair style, clothing, action modeling, etc.). You can also disassemble your own game's competitive products, analyze the main features, originality and innovation points of the products one by one, and judge whether your own reference may infringe, Huacheng Import and Export Data Observation Report.