A mother from China has to cope with the loss of her son. She wants to claim his digital assets and fought for it in court. Now there is a ruling.
What is the mother arguing about? The son passed away at the age of 36 due to cancer. Between 2010 and 2021, he registered 87 gaming accounts with the Chinese game developer Changyou. On these accounts, he apparently amassed valuable in-game items through years of gaming.
After his death, the mother requested the video game company to transfer the accounts to her name. However, the game developer refuses and refers to its terms of use, stating that the company has all rights to account data, game characters, virtual items, and in-game currencies.
The case goes to court in Beijing, and it has now decided for one of the two sides.
87 gaming accounts have a new owner
How does the case turn out? The court in Beijing rules in favor of the mother. She has a claim to the 87 gaming accounts and all the in-game items. The company must transfer the accounts to the real name of the mother within 15 days.
However, the court states that the mother did not inherit ownership of the 87 accounts, but only the right of use and the attached economic value.
What is this based on? Already in 2021, the software giant Tencent in China filed a patent for a service, that will allow people to effectively bequeath digital possessions to their heirs in the future.
In fact, there was also a new regulation in the civil code of the People’s Republic of China in the same year. We dug through to Article 127 on GTAI, which translates roughly to:
“Where laws provide specific provisions for the protection of data and online virtual assets, these provisions must be followed.”
Therefore, the accounts are formally considered civilly protected property. This is the reason why the woman can prevail in this legal dispute.
What happens now to the in-game items? The woman has already announced that she has only a low income and no family support. Therefore, she wants to sell the accounts to secure her livelihood.
Through the transfer of the right of use, the mother can now also sell the accounts as planned.
This is not the first case that has ended up in court. A widow in China wanted to take over her husband’s digital assets and also won the case, but she had to give up one thing: She inherited her husband’s gaming account, but she still has to give up one thing
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