(Yicai Global) July 26 -- The China Basketball Association, the country’s top professional basketball league, is going after CNY406 million (USD60 million) in compensation from video-sharing platform Bilibili for alleged copyright infringement, making it the largest intellectual property case in China's sports industry.

The CBA is suing Bilibili for its on-demand provision of the 2019-2020 basketball season without permission, according to a document recently released by the Beijing High People's Court.

The headline sum is the largest claim in China's sports sector, reflecting increasing efforts to protect sports-related copyrights, according to figures from industry data provider Sportsmoney. 

The CBA and Shanghai-based Bilibili have worked together in the recent past. Bilibili sponsored the Shanghai Sharks team between 2017 and 2019 and had a two-season video licensing deal with the association. But after the contract expired, Bilibili continued to provide users with videos about games between 2019 and 2020, according to the CBA.

In June 2021, China implemented its revised version of the Copyright Law to hike penalties by raising the cap on statutory damages to CNY5 million from CNY500,000 (to USD740,004 from USD74,037). For punitive damages, the violator may need to pay from one to five times the scale of royalties.

The CBA established CBA Co. in 2016 to manage commercial operations of the professional league. The company has exclusive rights to develop, promote and operate CBA events between 2017 to 2027, the documents show.

Editor: Emmi Laine, Xiao Yi