Category Archives: Litigation

Suggestions from Chinese Writer on the Modification on Copyright Law

The modification on China Copyright Law is under preparation, and as news reports, for the promote of internet prosperity and infringement combat, Ms. Zhang Kangkang, the vice president of Chinese Writers Association and China Literary Copyright Protection Association suggested on the law modification recently:

I. To legally determine the fault ascertainment standard of Safe Harbor Rule

Ms. Zhang suggested to drafted the standard of “known or shall be known” as the legal standard of the ISP fault ascertainment, meanwhile, the obligation of ISP shall also be listed in the modified law while no too high obligation shall be set.

Bridge IP Law Commentary’s opinion: There’s no legal standard on the ascertainment of ISP fault in Copyright Law, with the standard is referred to partly in the Article 36 of Infringement liability law, “Where no measures have been taken by IPS on knowing the infringement or violation by users against others, the ISP shall take the joint liability with the infringer.”

READ MORE

Analysis on the Copyright Infringement on Microblog

On 30th December, the Annual Conference of Sohu Weibo Client (weibo is just kind of microbloggng service like twitter in China), 2011 was held in Beijing, and Sohu (NASDAQ: SOHU) first issued the Weibo Copyright Protection Convention among the four main microblogging platforms in China, which verifies that the author may enjoy the copyright over its tweets, and accordingly Sohu will provide protecton on it, respect its authorized use and offer aids in the legal protection. However, for the tweets tend to be brief, therefore its protection by Copyright Law has been long argued. And here is the analysis from Bridge IP Law Commentary on it.

READ MORE

Hinder or Protection? The Role of Law in Internet Development

Suggestions on the draft of Copyright Law Judicial Interpretation in China, II

Currently, it’s argued heatedly in America that whether SOPA and PIPA shall be passed, and on the other side of the world the Judicial Interpretation on Cyber Copyright is under drafting by Supreme People’s Court in China. Will the new interpretation meet the demand of the development of internet or bring a more rigorous regulation? That catches the eyes of the public. Bridge IP Law Commentary will give our suggestion on the judicial interpretation in three posts, and today is the second one of the series:

READ MORE

China Cyber Infringement and Current Status of IP Protection

Suggestions on the draft of Copyright Law Judicial Interpretation in China, I

Currently, it’s argued heatedly in America that whether SOPA and PIPA shall be passed, and on the other side of the world the Judicial Interpretation on Cyber Copyright is under drafting by Supreme People’s Court in China. Will the new interpretation meet the demand of the development of internet or bring a more rigorous regulation? That catches the eyes of the public. Bridge IP Law Commentary will give our suggestion on the judicial interpretation in three posts, and today is the first one of the series:

READ MORE

Complaints from China IT Tycoon: Weak Protection over IPR Jeopardizes Industry Innovation

According to the report of Nandu Daily, Mr. Ding Lei, the CEO of NetEase (NASDAQ: NTES) and the representative of People’s Congress in China stated on the conference of Guangdong People’s Congress that despite the innovation could make customers more satisfied and bring more market share to the company, which is also the impetus to the company, it’s also haunted with the dilemma of “more innovation more suffering” due to the weak protection on IPR by the state.

According to Ding’s words, the lawsuit on the infringement against the company may last for years, therefore the proceeding may be a suffering to the company; moreover, the judged compensation may be very low even the infringed company wins the lawsuit. “Previously, Baidu stately posted the works of Han Han in its product Baidu Wenku, and why? The reason could only be the poor combat on the infringement”, said Mr. Ding.

READ MORE

How to Resolve Online Video Copyright Disputes in China: Administration Supervision or Lawsuit?

How to combat video infringement, by administrative supervision or lawsuit? We’ve got different answers from the company and the government, and the following is the news related:

NEWS 1: By the report of tech.ifeng.com on 29th December, 2011, Mr. Charles Zhang, CEO of SOHU, stated that the best way to improve the protection on copyright is the lawsuit. His comment is during the heated battle on video copyright between Youku (NYSE: YOKU) and Tudou (NASDAQ: TUDO).

Actually, SOHU does not stop in the words. Early in 2009, SOHU initiated China Internet Video Anti-Piracy Association, and accompanied with joy.cn started the first copyright war against the infringement by the leading company in the industry like Youku, Tudou and Xunlei. Afterwards, there saw a rocketing price of the films or TV programs.

READ MORE

Blizzard Suing against “WoW” Regredit and Chinese Law on Anti-Regredit

Highlights: Civil litigation as Blizzard uses this time is rarely adopted by Chinese game companies as a way to combat against game regredit. With the same logic as those game players who would rather choose regredit, those companies would rather choose another way, in their opinion, more convenient, quick, efficient and be once for all, for why they shall choose a more time and expense costing solution? Actually, Chinese game companies generally combat against the haunting regredit by directly reporting the cases to the police, charging the creators of regredit for crime of illegal business specified in the Criminal Law.

READ MORE

The Loan to the Film Companies Suggests A More Strengthened Protection on China Copyright

With the gradual mature of the pledge system in China, the local banks are issuing large loans to the film and television programs manufacture companies. And as reported by Today Morning Express, a Zhejiang based newspaper, the two most popular movies at the end of 2011 in China are both backed by the band, with RMB 150 million packing loan from China Minsheng Banking Corp. (CMBC, SSE: 600016, SEHK: 1988) for THE FOLWERS OF WAR (金陵十三钗) and RMB 100 million loan from Bank of Beijing (BOB, SSE: 601169) for FLYING SWORDS OF DRAGON GATE (龙门飞甲).

READ MORE

Shanda May Get 3 Million Compensation from Private Serve Operators

It is reported on the website of the China Daily that the Gaoxin District People’s Court in Hefei City of Anhui Province heard the case of a local private server operator providing piratic online game Legend of Mir II(the “Mir II”), in which 25 defendants were prosecuted. If the defendants’ behaviors are affirmed to have constituted the crime of copyright infringement, and the prime culprit shall be sentenced for three to seven-years imprisonment once the crime were established. And it’s released by the attorney of Shanda Games Limited (the “Shanda Games”)(NASDAQ：GAME) that it’s preliminarily promised by the prosecuted to compensate Shanda Games RMB 300 million. Bridge IP Law Commentary estimates that it could be for the understanding of Shanda Games aiming at a lighter sentence, though the plea bargain is not legally regulated in China.

READ MORE

Why Youku is Reluctant to Delete The Infringing Video as Alleged by Tudou

Several Common Knowledge in Law concerning the Conflict between Tudou and Youku in China

Recently, two biggest video sharing portals in China are embroiled in the copyright dispute of some hit dramas. And it’s triggered by Tudou (NASDAQ: TUDO) ’s accusation of Youku pirating the entertainment show Kang Xi Lai Le with Tudou owns its exclusive cyber copyright in China, and Youku (NYSE: YOKU) ’s refusal on the deletion after Tudou’s allegation. Following that, Youku stated that Tudou had been long pirating its copyrighted films and television programs. According to the latest statement from the both sides, both parties have filed the lawsuit, and Tudou has made complaint to the industry association. The post of Bridge IP Law Commentary today will analyze several common knowledge in law, and give our answer on Youku’s reluctance to delete the infringing video as alleged by Tudou.

READ MORE

A Battle of Vague Justice or for a Brighter Future?

analysis on the copyright dispute between video-sharing giants Tudou vs Youku in China

Bridge IP Law Commentary will post two comments on the copyright conflict of the entertainment show “Kang Xi Lai le” between Tudou (NASDAQ: TUDO) and Youku (NYSE: YOKU), two China video sharing giant in China. The first post is from Attorney Albert Chen.

The hottest news hitting the headline of IT news in China these days may be the battle between Youku and Tudou, who are the top two online video providers in mainland China. The war was triggered by Youku’s streaming of Kang Xi Lai Le (the “Show”), a popular entertainment show from Taiwan, which is claimed by Tudou of piracy and against its exclusive right of the show in China.

READ MORE

China Supreme Court’ s Advanced Judge Commented on Microblog Copyright Protection

As reported by Beijing News, Judge Kong Xiangjun, the head of third adjudication division of IPR cases in Supreme People’s Court, stated that the hearing standard of Weibo copyright conflict shall by those for general cyber copyright conflict.

According to the previous judicial interpretation from the Supreme People’s Court, it demanded the court to balance the interest among the oblige, ISP and social public, for one hand the cyber copyright protection shall be strengthened, and also the hearing shall promote the innovation and the business model development to ensure the social public interest.

READ MORE

Increased Penalty for the IPR Protection after China Criminal Law Revision


As reported, Mr. Jiang Zengwei, the deputy minister of China Commerce Ministry, replied on the press conference on 13th, December that China will enhance the strength of the IPR infringement punishment from 6 aspects, including the completion on the civil evidence rule and increasing the penalty sum.

The specific measures include to research the revision on the criminal law for the strengthened deterrence with more scientific description on the crime; to draft the current effective measures into the judicial interpretation; to increase the penalty sum as times of the infringing products’ value; to complete the civil evidence rule; to research the increase on compensation; to research the application conditions for the great amount, serious consequence and serious circumstance in the criminal law for the more feasibility of the law.

READ MORE

Common Problems Concerning the Notarization of Internet Evidences in China

Recently, Judge Gao Fei, from Dongcheng District People’s Court in Beijing, has published an article on the China Press and Publishing Journal, discussing the relevant problems of the electronic evidences of network copyright in China. The article analyzes the four main problems in the evidence preservation of network copyright infringement disputes due to the evidence being intangible and easy to be modified, and it also gives the solution. Bridge IP Law Commentary today will introduce you our interpretation on the article.

READ MORE

Legal Commentary on the case of Founder VS P&G and Chinese Character, II

—Analysis on the law Nature of the Works of Word Stock

Today’s essay follows “Legal Commentary on the case of Founder VS P&G and Chinese Character, I”

(2) The Founder Word Stock is the composite works

The Stock here refers to the Founder Word Stock composing all the individual words in it rather than the stock software. The new works come from the selection or arrangement of the existing works is called the composite works. In our opinion, it’s necessary for Founder to apply the copyright registration for the whole Stock since only focusing on the determination of the copyrighted works over the Stock Software or the individual words is not enough. And such registration could benefit the protection over the Stock against any other infringement, such as to print a book or magazine in the script in the Stock with no license.

READ MORE