TikTok Can’t Escape Trial in Copyright Suit Over Video Tech

TikTok Inc. must face a jury trial next month in a lawsuit brought by a Chinese software company accusing the social media giant of copying video- and audio-editing technology.

Judge Susan Illston ruled Monday that Beijing Meishe Network Technology Co. owns the copyrights to the code at issue, rejecting TikTok’s arguments that the rights to the software weren’t transferred from Meishe’s partial owner. Illston granted Meishe summary judgment on the ownership issue but left questions of copyrightability and infringement to a jury, according to the order docketed in the US District Court for the Northern District of California.

Falling in line with statements Illston made at an Aug. 15 hearing, the order also granted TikTok summary judgment on two issues: that one version of code Meishe claims infringement of is barred by lack of copyright registration, and claims against TikTok’s parent company ByteDance Ltd. fail.

The lawsuit arises from the actions of Xie Jing, a former Meishe employee who took all the code of the Meishe app with him when he left to work at ByteDance in 2017 as an audio and video director. Meishe filed a copyright infringement and trade secret suit against TikTok in 2021 over five versions of Meishe software, alleging Xie stole protected code that TikTok copied.

TikTok urged the court to toss the lawsuit in June due to Meishe’s alleged misconduct, arguing Meishe actively concealed information about its relationship with partial owner China Digital Video (Beijing) Ltd., referred to as XAT, that casts doubt on whether Meishe owns the asserted source code—a requirement for establishing standing to bring the suit.

Illston’s Monday order called Meishe’s conduct “questionable” and said she shared Tiktok’s skepticism about the credibility of testimony by Meishe’s chief technology officer. Nonetheless, Illston said terminating sanctions aren’t warranted because she concluded Meishe owns the intellectual property in question without the allegedly concealed information.

The record establishes that Meishe owns all the rights to the source code, the order said, pointing to a Chinese court judgment recognizing Meishe’s rights and licensing agreements. The licensing agreements “confirm that XAT believes plaintiff owns the Meishe application—indeed, XAT has paid plaintiff to use the software,” the order said.

The court held that questions about the copyrightability of Meishe’s code and TikTok’s infringement must go to a jury because it’s disputed whether Meishe needed to register the code with the US Copyright Office. A jury should also decide whether the code is entitled to broad or thin copyright protection, Illston said, because the originality of the code is disputed.

Cherian LLP represents Meishe. Covington & Burling LLP and White & Case represent TikTok.

The case is Beijing Meishe Network Tech. Co. Ltd. v. TikTok Inc., N.D. Cal., No. 23-cv-06012, 9/2/25.