Ultraman's greatest challenge: rampant copyright pirates across China

Japan’s Ultraman superhero is facing an intellectual property battle in China after a distibutor there said 99 per cent of all mobile games featuring the character were pirated, state media reported.

SCLA, a Shanghai-based company that holds Ultraman franchise rights on the Chinese mainland, said only three out of dozens of related games launched in the second quarter were authorised, according to Xinhua.

The Japanese animated character is popular among mainlanders born in the 1970s and 1980s, when the series became a local hit.

SCLA, the Shanghai Character License Administrative Corporation, said it would launch an investigation into the piracy and hoped to “build a long-term mechanism” to counter infringement of intellectual property rights.

Piracy and counterfeiting remain a serious problem on the mainland despite strengthened protection in recent years.

Some 85,000 people have been detained since 2013 for suspected IP violations, Xinhua said.