Tag Archives: copyright protection

How does the U.S. Government Guide Companies Registering IPR in China?

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(By You Yunting) This March, at the invitation of the U.S. government, Mr. You Yunting, the founder of Bridge IP Commentary began his journey to the United States. The main purpose of this visit was to better understand the system of intellectual property rights in the United States. Mr. You would like to share with our readers his experiences there in several posts here on our website. Of course, the content of the posts may not be truly comprehensive or strictly accurate; that being said, if you find any mistakes or comments that can be corrected or improved upon, please let us know. We encourage more dialogue with the IPR community and welcome all constructive commentary. The following is the first post in a series of Mr. You’s visit to the United States: 

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Analysis on the Assumption of Liability in the Serv-U Infringement Lawsuit in China

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(By Luo Yanjie) Serv-U is a kind of widely adopted FTP server terminal software, and its main function is to help the transmission of documents on websites. Because the software is relatively small and the normal user has no way to sense the server terminal, many domestic websites in China are now using pirated Serv-U. For this reason, Rhino Software Inc., the developer of Serv-U has been continuously fighting against the piracy of its software, a story which has recently been widely reported. The list of companies sued includes LockLock from South Korea, as well as Netac and eMule, among others. The compensation claimed in these cases ranges from half a million yuan to 1.99 million yuan.

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How Long Is the Copyright Protection Period of Foreign Companies and Individuals in China?

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By You Yunting

A reader asked: Does Chinese law protects the copyrights of foreign companies and individuals? And, how long is the protection period? Today’s post will discuss this question.

I. The three requirements for granting copyrights to the works of foreign individuals or companies

Whether or not the work of a foreign person, company, or stateless person enjoys the copyright protection period depends on whether or not they qualify as a Chinese copyright holder. By Article 2 of China’s Copyright Law, one of the following three conditions must be met:

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Unauthorized Derivative Work Still Receives Protection Under China’s Copyright Law

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By Luo Yanjie

The copyright holder of Pleasant Goat (喜羊羊), a popular Chinese cartoon figure, recently brought actions against the unauthorized use of the character in Flash games on several game websites. According to Chinese copyright law, the copyright holder must give permission to use art in a game, otherwise it will result in infringement. This is easily understood. But, if such an unauthorized game is then used on another website without the original developer’s consent, does this infringe the interests of the game developer? Today’s post will discuss this problem. In my opinion, even if the game developer used the cartoon character to create software without authorization from the copyright holder, the software still receives protection under the Copyright Law, but its protection has definite limits.

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Introduction to Copyright Protect on Clothing Design in China

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By Luo Yanjie

The clothing has been long seen the most afflicted field of IPR infringement, and in addition to the common trademark infringement, the pass off on the design or model developed by others is also ubiquitous. To pass off the design of the clothing is of no way to be protected by trademark law, for which shall be covered by the copyright law. Considering the clothing itself is not the statutory protective object in law, how to protect the design of clothing is also among the long argued topics. In today’s post, we would discuss over the issue.

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Analysis on Copyright Risks of Duowan YY Music

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By Luo Yanjie

According to a recent news report (note: the link is in Chinese), the Huanju Inc (namely duowan.com), the holding company of YY.com submitted the prospectus to SEC of USA, applying for the IPO in NASDAQ for $ 100 million funding, and the code of it is YY. As indicated in the prospectus, the achievements of YY music have been the most bling-bling part. YY music is actually the music channel of YY instant messenger, introduced in March of 2011, and mainly broadcasting live shows of music performance. The performer could interact with the spectators by Karaoke, singing match or live videos. Furthermore, amounts of virtual products are available on YY music, which could be got on payment or as gifts. Yet to the statement of someone skilled in the art, the mode of YY music is facing the copyright risk. Today’s post would share our opinions on the issue.

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Legal Analysis on Apple’s Lose in APP Store Infringing Contents of Beijing Litigation

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By Luo Yanjie

Recently, a reporter of TechWeb interviewed You Yunting of our website about issues of Apple providing infringing content as follows:

1, Lots of China writers have sued Apple Inc because its App Store violated their copyright; Encyclopedia of China Publishing House (EPCH) win the case and get 520,000 as compensation. How do you see this kind of cases? Can it become the flag case of mobile Internet copyright?

Personally think it is more suitable to say that it is a flag case for APP Store of Apple, the main significance is as follows:

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Shall Figure of Mickey be Protected by Copyright Law in DPRK?

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By Albert Chen

Mickey Mouse’s showing up in the show for Kim Jong-un, the new leader of DPRK, has provoked the coverage of news reports worldwide. The swift reaction by Disney stated that “This was not licensed or authorized by The Walt Disney”, which in turn made the event gather more controversy. Moreover, the State Council of USA also expressed its concern on the issue.

Not limited to the politics behind the event, the copyright matters involved in the character performance is also very interesting. This brings forth the question; does the performance constitute the infringement against Disney? In my opinion, the answer to the question shall lay on the answers to another two more basic questions: 1) Is Mickey Mouse still in his protection period? 2) Could copyright be protected through DPRK and USA?

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How to Apply for Evidence Preservation for IPR Trials in China

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By Luo Yanjie

In an earlier Microsoft’s case of right protection (Note: the link is in Chinese), the company applied for the evidence preservation to the court after they found the piracy using by others, demanding the perpetuation covering the pirated Microsoft software installed in the computers in the defendant’s business place. The application was accepted by the court, who thereafter sealed and checked the computers claimed and found each apparatus has been installed at least 5 types of software of Microsoft. Whereby, Microsoft gains the compensation of more than 1 million yuan in the following trials.

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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).

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