Category Archives: Non-litigation

How Chinese Companies Deal with Warning Letters from Adobe?

Posted on by

Adobe lawyer’s letter, Photoshop piracy, genuine software, original software, China pirated software, China software lawyer, venture company genuine trend, Microsoft, Autodesk, Adobe, warning letter against piracy, lawyer’s letter for warning against piracy, evidence liability of pirated software using, windows fire wall, modify hosts file piracy, shield Adobe server, pirated information using, steal client’s piracy, self remedy evidence collection, administrative complaint, judicial preservation, seal up piracy, evidence preservation application, genuine trend of government

READ MORE

The Successful Transformation of VeryCD: China’s Biggest Download Website Becomes a Webgame Company

TM截图未命名

(By  Huang Mengren) The21st Century Business Herald has reported (note: the link is in Chinese) that eMule, one of the biggest video, music and game resource sharing websites in China, has had early success in webgaming after its abandonment of downloadable content hosting, with a current monthly income of tens of millions yuan.

VeryCD, who introduced the open source software eMule into China in 2003, is the 462nd most visited website according to Alexa as of 7th February 2012. The software eMule is a P2P web sharing software based on open source code, and its main difference from the P2P sharing software Bit Torrent is that it works without the torrent file and tracker. Therefore, the operational risk to the operator of the software is much lower in theory than that of other BT sites. The report states that VeryCD.com made modifications to the eMule software for the avoidance of political risk and also shielded KAD research service. It is also stated in the report that the total cumulative downloads from VeryCD.com’s eMule are more than 30 million times.

READ MORE

Tax Preferential Policy in China’s Animation Industry

It is reported by SECURITIES DAILY (note: the link is in Chinese) that there will be adjustment on tax policy in China animation industry. In recent, China Ministry of Finance and the State Administration of Taxation jointly issued a new policy supporting the animation industry, which introduces the VAT and the preferential business tax. And less tax and taxation of the both VAT and business tax will be made hereby.

I. For the sales of the independently developed animation software by the company of the general tax payer itself, the VAT shall be levied at the rate of 17% first, and the exceeding 3% amount of the actual tax bearing will be refunded. That’s the so called levy-refund policy.

READ MORE

Three Drafts of Revised Chinese Copyright Law Advised by Experts Have Been Finished

badge

It is reported by the Legal Daily, a new advancement of the third revision of the Copyright Law of the People’s Republic of China revised in 2010 ( “ 2010 Copyright Law”) has achieved recently since the commencement of revision on 13th July, 2011. The three drafts for revisions advised by experts entrusted by the office of the leading group in charge of legislation revision have been completed.

It is said that the three drafts are separately drafted by the Intellectual Property Right Research Center of Chinese Academic and Social Science, Intellectual Property Right Research Center of Zhongnan University of Economics and Law and the School of Intellectual Property of Renmin University of China.

READ MORE

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

Good News for Small and Micro Businesses: Further Relief on China Software Copyright Registration Fee

As to the latest news to us, aiming at the less operation burden as well as the healthy development to the small and micro business, the State Intellectual Property Center has promulgated the Notice of the Relief on the Software Copyright Registration Fee of Small and Micro Business (the “Notice”) on 27th December, 2011.

As stipulated in the Notice, during the period commencing from 1st January, 2012 to 31st December, 2014, any approved small or micro business may be temporarily exempted from the copyright registration fee, contract registration fee, information inquiry fee and other 8 administrative charging. Meanwhile, all the companies applying for the fee relief will be recorded by the administration.

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

The Complicated Legal Problems concerning the Likeness of Jobs

Could the deceased’s right of likeness be protected in China?

Our website has posted the article How to Combat the Infringing Steven Jobs Doll in Chinese Market, introducing the Chinese laws and regulations regarding the infringement of right of likeness according to this event. Later, we read an American legal professional’s comment, Apple Won’t be Able to Stop Steve Jobs Action Figure from Going on Sale in Most States, saying Apple’s legal claim is largely bogus. While people can indeed own rights to their likeness, those rights usually apply only to living people. Unlike other forms of intellectual property like patents or copyrights, image rights do not survive beyond the grave in most places.

READ MORE

How to Combat the Infringing Steve Jobs Doll in Chinese Market

—Does Chinese Makers of Steve Jobs  Action Figures Constitute Crime?

As The Telegraphy reports, the Chinese company In Icons met with the legal challenge of the Apple (NASDAQ：AAPL, LSE：ACP) threatening to sue it if it doesn’t cease making Steven Jobs action doll.

I have done a research on the biggest C2Cwebsite, TaoBao, finding at least two hundreds web selling Steven Jobs action figures with various sizes, the prices of which range from 4 dollars to 100 dollars that are much cheaper than 99.99 dollars of In Icons. Obviously, the Apple and the owner of right of Steven Jobs’s likeness shall combat the infringing products in China.

READ MORE

Legal Issues concerning Trademark during the Exhibition in China

In recent, more and more Chinese companies is developing their business outside China and thereby brings more chances for exhibition. Meanwhile, with the rapid economy development on China, the exhibition sponsored by China becomes more and more influential. Such exhibitions have become the key occasion for the release of new product and technology of the companies in China and abroad, which followed by many legal problems with the IPR matters are the most prominent ones. Bridge IP Law Commentary today will give our analysis on the issues related to the exhibition trademark.

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

Baidu Reached a Final Settlement with Three Main Music Companies

According to the report of Beijing News, the Supreme Court of China revealed recently that Baidu, the defendant in the lawsuit against Universal, Warner and Sony BMG, has reconciled with its opponent.

Universal, Warner and Sony BMG sued Baidu in 2008, claiming Baidu has infringed the companies’ record producer right by links, online audition and download service through search box and ranking list in its MP3 column. But the claim was rejected by the No. Intermediate People’s Court in Beijing in the first instance, and Baidu is judged of no infringement as an cyber search operator.

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