Wavve Americas Successfully Prevails in Legal Battle Against Illegal Streaming Website

Courtesy of Kocowa

The US District Court, District of Arizona, recently ruled in favor of Wavve Americas in a legal dispute against Kokoa TV, a streaming website accused of illegally broadcasting Korean content to overseas audiences. The court, on February 9, directed Tumi MAX, the operator of Kokoa TV, to immediately halt activities related to storing, reproducing, displaying, or distributing copyrighted works.

Additionally, the court mandated that Kokoa TV must "cease all use in commerce of the mark Kocowa or any other confusingly similar mark, including but not limited to Kokoa and non-distinct variations thereof."

The legal action was initiated by Wavve Americas, a collaborative venture between SK Telecom and major Korean broadcast networks (Korean Broadcasting System, Munhwa Broadcasting Corporation, and Seoul Broadcasting System), in October 2023. Wavve Americas filed a lawsuit against Tumi Max, alleging trademark infringement, cybersquatting, federal unfair competition, and tortious interference with business expectancy. 

▲ Courtesy of KocowaWavve Americas contended that Kokoa TV illicitly distributed Korean content, including materials exclusively available on authorized streaming platforms such as Wavve, Netflix, and Disney+. The lawsuit also asserted that Kokoa TV intentionally adopted a name similar to Kocowa, the streaming platform operated by Wavve Americas, to redirect audiences to its own domain.

According to Similarweb, a service estimating website traffic, 77% of Kokoa TV users hailed from the United States and Canada.

A survey by the Korea Copyright Protection Agency, conducted from August 25, 2023, to October 18, 2023, revealed that an estimated 350 million Korean video content and webtoons were posted on illegal streaming sites in various languages in 2023. Korean content accounted for 15.4% of the total 2.26 billion postings on illegal streaming sites, based on data collected from 1,035 out of 12,979 identified sample websites.

Sayart

Blue YIM, yimyoungseo1010@naver.com