MiniMax and the Japan-based KAGAMIAI association co-hosted an IP-and-AI conference in Shibuya, Tokyo, which MiniMax says drew more than 150 companies from Japan and the United States. The theme, framed by KAGAMIAI's Takami Kondo as going 'from fair use to fair pay', focused on licensing pathways and usage tracking that return value to creators and rights holders, and was tied to a 'World IP.AI Co-Creation Declaration' of six commitments. MiniMax used the event to launch MiniMax H3 IP Edition, a version of its video model built so that rights management is part of the creative workflow, alongside a system it calls Kagami Gate for licensing, monitoring and distributing IP-based content. The company says more than 60 firms have since expressed interest in adopting the edition. Speakers included producer Yasushi Akimoto and executives from Higgsfield, Krea, HeyGen and Runway.
Our takeOur take: The pitch is clever and a little self-serving. Chinese video models trained on the open internet are exactly what rights holders fear; MiniMax is trying to get ahead of that by selling a licensed edition instead. 'Fair pay' points the right way, but the test is whether Kagami Gate actually tracks and pays creators or merely gates access. Judge this on contracts, not slogans.