PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds does not accept that the saying “Winner Winner Chicken Dinner” cannot be patented in the corresponding translation in China. Therefore, a lawsuit is now being filed.
What is “Winner Winner Chicken Dinner”? With this funny saying, PUBG rewards you when you emerge as the last survivor at the end of the battle royale fight.
In China, the famous phrase can be represented with the characters “今晚吃鸡” (Jīn wǎn chī jī).
This roughly translates back to “Eat Chicken Tonight”.
This is the problem with the chicken dinner: Since the phrase holds such significance in PUBG and also appears in numerous advertising campaigns, the PUBG developers wanted to patent the expression and secure the rights to it.
However, this was prohibited by the relevant government authority for the protection of intellectual property in China. The phrase was deemed too generic, and therefore no legal claims could be registered.
PUBG, on the other hand, argued that the phrase is indeed closely associated with their game and has been used in various marketing campaigns for over a year.
Meanwhile, the phrase has simply become part of everyday slang in China due to the high popularity of PUBG in China. Therefore, they are now suing the government and hope to claim the chicken phrase for themselves.
However, PUBG is not the only one using the expression “今晚吃鸡”. The characters also seem to appear in various other contexts in China. So it is questionable whether PUBG will ultimately succeed with its claim.
Where does the phrase actually come from? Originally, the expression “Winner Winner Chicken Dinner” likely originated from the casino language in Las Vegas.
There, a chicken meal once likely cost the same as the minimum win at a game. Thus, one could play for a portion of chicken as a winner.
The phrase was later adopted as a general description for a lucky win.
