Well, it looks like companies based in China can be sued for alleged copyright infringement in the United States after all.
Quinn Emanuel attorneys, representing Chinese companies Minimax, and Shanghai Xiyu Jizhi Technology, and a Singaporean company Nanonoble Ptd., filed a Stipulation that proposes to treat the service of the complaint on Quinn Emanuel as sufficient. It would make the formal service through the Hague Convention unnecessary, if the court approves.
Through a joint stipulation, the parties propose to waive all rights to service of process and to set April 24, 2026 for the defendants to answer or to move to dismiss the Complaint.
This alone is fascinating. It may portend other lawsuits against Chinese companies that allegedly engaged in copyright infringement in the inputs or outputs of AI models.
Chinese-based companies face copyright lawsuits in other cases: (1) Attack the Sound v. Kunlun Technologies. But service of process has not been made in that case. (2) Ted Entertainment v. Bytedance. Bytedance was served at its office in Sacramento.
Shall we expect more lawsuits to be filed against Chinese-based companies?