Tencent retaliates in recent court filing, says Sony’s Light of Motiram case failed to show purposeful direction

In a recent court filing answering Sony’s previous arguments, Tencent mentioned in its preliminary statement that Sony’s lawsuit was “brought against the wrong parties.” They added that Sony might be “frustrated by the fact that it has to follow the proper procedures and serve the parties that, as alleged, are actually the relevant actors.”

It can be recalled that Sony’s previous lawsuit included the argument that Tencent has been playing “a shell game with its brands and entities,” essentially saying that Tencent is confusing people about who is really behind the game Light of Motiram, which was the main reason this lawsuit exists.

Tencent, in its response, mentioned that the district court of the Northern District of California “lacks personal jurisdiction over Tencent Holdings.” The company argued that even though the developers are their subsidiaries, the law in the Ninth Circuit states that “The existence of a parent-subsidiary relationship is insufficient, on its own, to justify imputing one entity’s contacts with a forum state to another for the purpose of establishing personal jurisdiction.” Tencent added that “Sony fails to show that Tencent Holdings purposefully directed any infringing activity at California or the United States causing harm there.”

The company also pointed out that Sony has failed to “identify a particular, consistent trademark.” In Sony’s lawsuit, they mentioned that Aloy, from Horizon Zero Dawn, was recognizable by the relevant population, but Tencent fired back saying that this statement wasn’t proper and that “it shifts the burden of identifying the mark from Sony to the Served Defendants.”

Additionally, Tencent also pointed out that the explanation “misunderstands what makes a trademark.” Tencent continued, “Aloy’s appearance as a playable character inside Sony’s video games is not what would make her function as a trademark–rather, it would be her appearances outside the game as a source identifier selling a particular product or service.”

Tencent ended the filing by urging the court to do what it has been requesting since the lawsuit’s appearance: dismiss Sony’s case against it.