San Francisco, CA, September 3, 2025 …Based on new federal court rulings, Beijing Meishe Network Technology Co. Ltd. (“Meishe”) is set to proceed to trial in October 2025 on its copyright infringement and trade secret misappropriation case against TikTok Inc., TikTok Pte. Ltd., and ByteDance Inc.

Judge Susan Illston of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California granted Meishe’s motion confirming its ownership of copyrighted source code and trade secrets Meishe alleges are used in TikTok and other apps. Judge Illston denied TikTok and ByteDance’s motions to end the case by way of summary judgment or sanctions. The court ruled that issues of copyright infringement, trade secret misappropriation, and copyrightability will go to the jury.

Further orders from Judge Illston confirmed that Meishe’s experts can testify on TikTok and ByteDance’s copying and use of Meishe’s copyrights and trade secrets and on the TikTok and other revenues generated by use of Meishe software, which Meishe’s expert has valued at over $845 million.

Meishe brought suit in the United States against the TikTok and ByteDance companies for using Meishe’s copyrighted audio and video editing source code, containing Meishe trade secrets, in TikTok and other TikTok/ByteDance apps. Meishe alleges that a former Meishe employee, Xie Jing, left Meishe with a copy of

Meishe’s audio and video editing source code that was later incorporated into TikTok and other apps beginning at least in 2018, and that TikTok and other defendants have been unjustly enriched by the use of that code. Meishe has already prevailed in several cases in China against various ByteDance entities for their illicit use of this same source code in various apps in China.

Meishe is represented by Cherian LLP, with a team led by partners Robert Harkins and Michael Woods. TikTok and ByteDance are represented by Covington & Burling LLP, White & Case LLP, and Quinn Emanuel LLP.

Jury selection for Meishe’s trial against the TikTok and ByteDance companies begins October 27, 2025, in San Francisco, California.