Kunlun Wanwei bet on killing werewolves to earn more than 10 times, and attaches importance to IP, look for the wind direction before taking off

"This project will definitely make more than 10 times the profit, and this year's profit will be 200 million." At the anniversary celebration of Shengdao Investment today some time ago, Zhou Yahui, founder, chairman and CEO of Kunlun Wanwei, expressed confidence.

"This project will definitely make more than 10 times the profit, and this year's profit will be 200 million yuan." At the anniversary celebration of Shengdao Investment today some time ago, Zhou Yahui, founder, chairman and CEO of Kunlun Wanwei, expressed confidence. All because he voted for a project this year-werewolf killing. The reason why he believed that Werewolf Kill would definitely move the market was because he had witnessed the popularity of Werewolf Kill offline, so he invested in this project without thinking.

Behind all "overnight fame" is "thick accumulation and thin development"

. There is no doubt that werewolf killing is a hot spot for investment this year, but this hot spot is estimated to have the longest formation cycle in history. Through Baidu Encyclopedia, the encyclopedia entry for werewolf killing was created as early as September 28, 2010. This may be the earliest record of werewolf killing that can be traced back to the Internet. If this is the case, the formation cycle of this tuyere will be nearly 7 years., then how will the wind direction of werewolf killing under the tuyere change next? Why don't we first take a look at the development history of werewolf killing?

In 1986, Dmitry was a professor of psychology at Moscow State University. Davilov created "Mafia", the origin of the killing game, and used it as a teaching tool. This rule of the game gradually became popular in other schools in the Soviet Union. After 1990, this game model was introduced to Europe and the United States; in 1997, Andrew, an interactive narrative researcher in the United States in the 1990s. Proskin gave this killing game a "werewolf" theme for the first time. Later,"werewolf" and other variants of the killer game were brought to academic/professional discussions such as GDC, science fiction seminars, etc. At this time,"Killing Games" and "Werewolf" exist only as a rule of the game and one of its many themes, rather than as commercial publications.

Due to the open source of killer games and the popularity of werewolf culture around the world, board game developers in many countries later adapted and published various commercial game versions based on the rules and themes of this game. Although the game rules, themes and characters are similar, the game names and characters 'artistic styles are different. According to incomplete statistics, there are dozens of killer games adapted with werewolf culture as the background. Most games published in Europe and the United States are named after Werewolves, such as "ARE YOU A WEREWOLF" and "The Werewolves of Miller's Hollow". These are the development history of killing games based on werewolf culture. They are also prehistoric werewolf kills that many werewolf killers are unclear about.

With history and IP, werewolf killing is by no means a "land without a owner."

Although it was introduced into China from abroad, due to cultural differences, the acceptance of killing games based on werewolf culture in China is far less popular than it is now. For a game, in addition to cultural elements, a loud name and gameplay that are in line with the habits of China are more important. The same was true for the beginning of the Werewolf Kill game in China. When this type of game first entered China, it was not called Werewolf Kill. Until 2009, the person in charge of the Beijing Demon King Board Game Club named it Werewolf Kill based on the popular Three Kingdoms Kill game at that time. At the same time, a series of localized adaptations and commercial operations were carried out in the earliest open source version of the game, which was the same as the popular Three Kingdoms Kill game at that time. Basically, they refer to some foreign open source games for localized adaptations. However, the scale of development of the Three Kingdoms Killing far exceeded that of the werewolf Killing, and even the Three Kingdoms Killing once became synonymous with board games. The other difference is that there is only Hangzhou Youka family in the Three Kingdoms Killing, and the Werewolf Killing does seem to have become an ownerless thing. The various Werewolf Killing apps on the market are even more uneven.

Today, as intellectual property protection is becoming increasingly perfect, fishing

in troubled waters is no longer feasible. It is not difficult for serious people to find that the past situation of riding hot spots or even fishing in troubled waters is quietly changing. In particular, participants in Werewolf Kill have found that it seems not easy to submit Apple APP review recently. Tmall search for Werewolf Kill no longer has various Werewolf Kill versions like before, especially the Miller Valley Werewolf that everyone is familiar with.(It belongs to the same type of game as Werewolf Kill.) After being quietly removed from the shelves for a period of time, the product introduction no longer contained any information on Werewolf Kill. The sales person in charge of Miller Valley Werewolf China has also repeatedly stated on different occasions that his product is not Werewolf Kill. Even the function introduction of its public account was once deleted by WeChat, and the restored function introduction did not contain any words "Werewolf Kill." Baidu Encyclopedia, the historical version of Sogou Encyclopedia's Werewolf Kill entry has repeatedly shown that trademark infringement information has been deleted based on complaints. At present, all content in the Encyclopedia entry shows that Beijing Huacai Tiancheng Digital Image Technology Co., Ltd. is the holder of Werewolf Kill related trademarks. The original "Werewolf Kill" account on Sina Weibo has also been re-certified. The certification subject has become Youxing (Beijing) Technology Co., Ltd., and the certification subject of the WeChat public account "Werewolf Kill Official" is also the same as Weibo.

Later, the author learned that as early as 2015, Youxing (Beijing) Technology Co., Ltd. had wholly acquired the Werewolf Kill brand of the Big Demon King Board Game Club under Beijing Huacai Tiancheng Digital Image Technology Co., Ltd., and then entrusted Xi'an Yunrui Network Technology Co., Ltd. The company started the game adaptation and development of Werewolf Kill at the end of 2015. This is also why the certification information of the "Werewolf Kill Heroes List", the largest Werewolf Kill game based on the WeChat platform in China, is Xi'an Yunrui Network Technology Co., Ltd. Werewolf Kill (Hainan) Cultural Media Co., Ltd., the initiator of the Werewolf Kill official card project that appeared in Jingdong crowdfunding at the beginning of the year and caused a sensation in the board game industry, is understood to be also a wholly-owned subsidiary of Xi'an Yunrui Network Technology Co., Ltd.

From taking advantage to being unscrupulous,"fake Li Gui" objects to "real Li Kui"

. Through the above analysis, it is not difficult to see that the intellectual property rights of Werewolf Kill, as a desktop game, should now belong to Youxing (Beijing) Technology Co., Ltd. As for Youxing (Beijing) Technology Co., Ltd. The real legal relationship between Youxing (Beijing) Technology Co., Ltd. and Xi'an Yunrui Network Technology Co., Ltd. is still unknown. So who do the Class 9 and Class 41 trademarks and related intellectual property rights that must be possessed by mobile games? We inquired through the website of the State Trademark Office and learned that Youxing (Beijing) Technology Co., Ltd. made most of the related categories applications as early as April 2016. Relevant information shows that the trademarks it applied for were originally planned to be announced on May 27 this year, but they were all objected to during the publicity period.

"If you are not opposed, according to Article 57 of the Trademark Law of the People's Republic of China, using a trademark similar to its registered trademark on the same commodity without the permission of the Trademark Registering person, which easily leads to confusion or causes other damage to the exclusive right to use the registered trademark of others, is a violation of the exclusive right to use the registered trademark. So now all werewolf killing apps will definitely be removed. If Werewolf Kill was really authorized to adapt mobile games as early as 2015, according to Article 5 (2) of the Anti-Unfair Competition Law of the People's Republic of China, unauthorized use of names unique to deadly commodities or names similar to well-known commodities, resulting in confusion with other people's well-known commodities, constitutes unfair competition against rights holders. If Youxing Company has sufficient evidence to prove that it has obtained authorization and carried out the development and promotion of werewolf killing games first, then the biggest risk faced by these unauthorized werewolf killing games later is unfair competition." We obtained the above information through interviews with experts on relevant intellectual property rights in the industry. According to public information, the WeChat version of Werewolf Kill operated by Youxing (Beijing) Technology Co., Ltd. and Xi'an Yunrui Network Technology Co., Ltd. registered more than 1.4 million users in 2016 and played games. There were more than 10 million people. Jingdong crowdfunding shows that the official Werewolf Kill cards have also exceeded 1 million. If these evidence can prove that Werewolf Kill has achieved high popularity among the relevant public, Then Youxing Company is very likely to launch its own rights protection measures through unfair competition.

What's interesting is that several early video programs still seem to attach great importance to copyright awareness. Whether it is Zhanqi's "Lyingman", Panda TV's "Pandakill" or Ma Dong's "The Temptation of Meal", they all seem to be deliberately avoiding their program names related to werewolf killing. Even Zhanqi's press conference earlier this year bluntly stated that he wanted to make "lyingman" his own IP, and the earliest card released by "The Temptation of Meal" was also called "Wolf Comes". This year, Ma Dong directly named his program "Dinner Werewolf Kill" and even specially developed the "Dinner Werewolf Kill" APP. Under the banner of Werewolf Kill,"Happy Camp", the oldest variety show in China, is not willing to lag behind. Several programs it cooperates with Happy Werewolf Kill are all named after "Happy Werewolf"."Happy Werewolf" with the word kill removed is not sure whether it is deliberately circumventing its own copyright risks.

No matter what the final trend of werewolf killing is, it sounds a wake-up call for our startups. The entrepreneurship of China's cultural and content industries has bid farewell to the savage times, and the role of intellectual property will become greater and greater. It is like a sharp sword that stabs either others or oneself. In the context of an era when countries and industries are increasingly paying attention to intellectual property rights, intellectual property will be the most important direction of whether werewolf killing, which is still in the wind today, can take off. As for which direction this downward trend of werewolf killing and chaos will develop, let us wait and see.

Editor: Mary