Qihoo 360 Defeated with 5.1 Million Yuan Compensation to Sogou

On January 19th, Beijing Second Intermediate People’s Courtdelivered the first verdict of Sogou, Inc. (a subsidiary of China’s Internet giant Sohu) suing the well-known ChineseInternet security companyQihoo 360 Technology Co. Ltd(Qihoo 360) for unfair competition. According to the court, Qihoo 360 conducted unfair competition by using its developed program 360 Safeguard to prevent users from using the Sogou browser or set it as the default browser through destructive technical means. Qihoo 360 was ordered to compensate5.1 million yuan to Sogou, which is the highest amount of compensation appearing in similar cases.

TheSogou V. Qihoo 360case began when Qihoo 360 prevent users from installing and using Sogou browser to damage Sogou’s service integrity to Internet users as well as promote its own 360 Safeguard and 360 Browser. Later on September 29th 2014, Sogou filed the lawsuit to Beijing Second Intermediate People’s Court.