BEIJING, Aug. 14 (Xinhua) -- Chinese IT company
Founder Electronics Co., Ltd. is suing California-based Blizzard Entertainment
for 100 million yuan, claiming lost earnings from the unauthorized use of its
fonts.

    A statement from Founder Electronics said five fonts
from its database were used without authorization in the popular on-line fantasy
game World of Warcraft (WoW), resulting in losses of one billion yuan.

    Founder Electronics has launched the lawsuit against
Blizzard Entertainment, a unit of French media and telecoms company Vivendi, at
the Beijing Municipal Higher People's Court.

    Founder Electronics is the largest provider of
Chinese fonts in China, the statement said.

    The font database was part of the company's
E-Publishing system, which was used by 90 percent of the international Chinese
newspaper industry, the statement said.

    Observers said the damages sought by the Chinese
company were among the largest ever for an intellectual property suit in China.

    Shanghai-based IT company The9, which runs WoW in
China, refused to comment on the suit on Tuesday evening.

    The monster-killing game, first launched in 2004, is
one of the most popular on-line role-playing games involving multiple players.
It was officially launched in China in June 2005.

    WoW has 8.5 million players worldwide, including more
than 3.5 million in China.

    Founder Electronics is a wholly-owned subsidiary of
Founder Group, which has 20,000 staff and five listed public companies on the
securities exchanges of Shanghai, Shenzhen, Malaysia and Hong Kong.

    China's courts have seen a nearly 50-percent annual
increase in the number of cases concerning intellectual property rights (IPR)
violations involving foreign firms since the country joined the World Trade
Organization.

    From 2002 to 2006, China's courts settled 931 civil
cases of IPR violation at first instance trials with an annual increase of 48.3
percent. In 2006, China's courts settled 353 civil cases of IPR violation at
first instance trials, up 52.16 percent on the previous year, according the
Supreme People's Court.

    The Copyright Protection Center of China received
23,095 applications for registration of computer software for copyright
protection last year, a record high that demonstrated the growing awareness of
copyright protection among Chinese, especially those working for the IT
industry. (One U.S. dollar equals 7.5845 yuan)