KONAMI KABUSHIKI KAISHA (KONAMI CORPORATION) AND ANOTHER v. INFO POWER LTD

DCCJ 2753/2006

IN THE DISTRICT COURT OF THE

HONG KONG SPECIAL ADMINISTRATIVE REGION

CIVIL ACTION NO. 2753 OF 2006

___________________________

REASONS FOR DECISION

___________________________

1.  This is the plaintiff’s application for leave to appeal against my order to dismiss the plaintiff’s application for summary judgment for injunction to restrain the defendant from infringing the copyright of the plaintiff in respect of the defendant’s publication of some video games strategy guidebooks.

2.  The applicant’s intended grounds of appeal are set out in their 5-page document filed with court on 22 November 2006. I do not find it necessary to recite the contents of the 3 grounds of appeal proposed by the applicant, save and except to say that the 3 grounds contained in the intended grounds of appeal recapped the plaintiff’s view during the O.14 hearing that the appearance of some images of the plaintiff’s artwork in the defendant publication alone would be sufficient for the court to accept that the defendant must have infringed the plaintiff’s copyright.

3.  In the applicant’s contention the Chinese text in the defendant’s magazine inevitably showed an objective reader with any common sense that the defendant’s articles were neither review nor critique of the plaintiff’s game. This I do not agree.

4.  In their intended grounds of appeal the applicant is seeking to suggest this court whilst not being informed of the actual contents of the video games and the strategy guides published by the plaintiff; whilst not being informed of the meaning of the Japanese text accompanying the images; this court could still on balance form an objective view that the defendant’s publication could not possibly have amounted to a critique or evaluation of the plaintiff’s games.

5.  Such argument, in my evaluation, has no reasonable prospect of success in the applicant’s intended appeal. Leave is refused with costs.