Hi everyone, I came across this interesting article published by the legal department of miHoYo, the company that makes Genshin Impact and the Honkai series. You can find the original text on their WeChat public account. These game, due to their influence, has many people who dig up unreleased designs and future version information to post online. How does the law handle this? I’ve translated it into English below:
Supreme People’s Court of China Releases Intellectual Property Protection Report Including miHoYo Game Leaks Case
On April 21, 2025, the Supreme People’s Court held a press conference to release the “Status of Intellectual Property Judicial Protection in Chinese Courts (2024)” and typical intellectual property cases from 2024. Eight typical cases covered various types including trade secrets, patents, trademarks, copyrights, and anti-unfair competition, involving industries such as video games, biomedicine, and AI technology. Among them was the case filed by miHoYo with the Shanghai Pudong New District People’s Court regarding “leaking unreleased game characters infringing trade secrets.” The Supreme People’s Court noted in the report that this case establishes standards and judicial rules for determining whether unreleased game character designs constitute trade secrets, which has positive significance for promoting healthy development of the gaming industry.
MiHoYo’s game “Honkai: Star Railway” has received an enthusiastic response in the global gaming market since its launch. To provide players with good gaming experiences, miHoYo regularly updates the game with new characters, scenes, storylines, and activities, which undergo internal testing before release. For this purpose, miHoYo and its affiliated companies recruited several players, including Chen, to participate in beta testing and signed confidentiality agreements. During the beta test, Chen, without permission, secretly photographed and recorded test content and screens of seven game characters including “Robin,” capturing their in-game models (character models that players can control), skill effects, skill data, and other test content. Chen disclosed this information to third parties multiple times, which led to the public disclosure of the beta test game footage. Upon discovery, miHoYo filed a pre-litigation behavior preservation application with the Shanghai Pudong New District People’s Court because “the relevant information constitutes trade secrets, and further disclosure would cause irreparable damage,” and filed a lawsuit within the statutory period, requesting the court to order Chen to stop the infringement, eliminate the impact, and compensate for losses. Chen argued that the relevant game characters had already been publicly disclosed before they participated in the test and were not within the scope of trade secret protection.
The Shanghai Pudong New District People’s Court reviewed the pre-litigation behavior preservation application and determined that miHoYo’s request had a factual basis and legal grounds. If corresponding preservation measures were not taken, it could cause irreparable damage to the company’s legitimate rights and interests, and taking behavior preservation measures would not lead to a significant imbalance of interests between the parties. Therefore, within 48 hours of receiving the application, the court legally issued a ruling ordering Chen not to disclose, use, or allow others to use the game content that was unauthorized recorded during the game testing process.
The Shanghai Pudong New District People’s Court ruled in the first instance that for the seven game characters that were secretly recorded, the continuous dynamic game footage composed of elements such as the in-game character models, character skill effects, and skill data conform to the characteristics of business information and the constitutive elements of trade secrets as stipulated in the Anti-Unfair Competition Law, and are protected as trade secrets under this law. Chen, having signed a confidentiality agreement, violated confidentiality obligations by secretly photographing and disseminating these trade secrets, and should bear the corresponding legal responsibility. The essence of trade secret protection is to protect the competitive advantage that trade secrets bring to operators. Even if the game characters had been made public due to version updates, Chen was still not allowed to disclose the test game footage in their possession. The court finally ruled that Chen should stop the infringement, eliminate the impact, and compensate for economic losses and reasonable expenses totaling 500,000 yuan. After the first-instance judgment, neither party appealed.
The Supreme People’s Court pointed out in the report that this case involves the criteria for determining whether unreleased game character designs and other information constitute trade secrets and judicial rules, which has a positive significance for promoting the healthy development of the gaming industry. The pre-litigation behavior preservation ruling, taking into account the characteristics of the online gaming industry, provided timely legal remedies for the applicant. The judgment, targeting the leakage of game characters, not only protects the content of game characters themselves but also protects the business model of enhancing attention through game version updates and the competitive advantages brought by this business model, thereby providing strong regulation against premature “leakers.”
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