(Yicai Global) Dec. 22 -- Tencent Holdings has upped its compensation claims against short video platform Douyin by 13 times to CNY800 million (USD125.5 million) for alleged copyright infringement of an animated cartoon series as the copyright war between the two intensifies, The Paper reported yesterday.

Shenzhen-based Tencent applied to the court to increase its claims earlier this month, the report said, without stating the reason why.

Tencent first sued Douyin operator ByteDance Technology for CNY61.6 million in June, claiming the short video site was allowing its users to upload clips of its hit show Soul Land and airing them without authorization.

The court ruled in Tencent’s favor that month, saying that Douyin videos under the hashtag Soul Land had been viewed 21.5 billion times and the site had infringed Tencent’s intellectual property rights. It ordered Douyin to remove all such content and to take measures to stop its users from uploading and distributing Soul Land clips. Evidently the matter did not end there.

Tencent is seeking more than CNY2.9 billion (USD454 million) in damages from Douyin in 168 lawsuits filed over the last six months to 18 courts across 13 provinces, the report said, citing a company source. Four of these suits are worth more than CNY100 million each. The Soul Land one is the largest.

Meanwhile, ByteDance is counter-suing the tech giant over the alleged infringement of its TV series Drawing Sword. The Beijing-based firm is asking a court to order Tencent Video to delete the clips, issue a statement to eliminate the impact and pay compensation of CNY10 million.

Editor: Kim Taylor