Tag Archives: internet lawyer

Tonghuashun VS. Wind and the Judgment Standards for Software Copyright Infringement in China

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(By Luo Yanjie) Recently, Wind Information Co., Ltd (“Wind Info”), a well-known stock speculation software developer in mainland China, made an official announcement that it would sue its competitor Zhejiang Hexin Tonghuashun (300033) to seek RMB 99.22 million yuan in compensation. According to Wind’s spokesman, “more than ninety-nine percent of its software’s function has been copied by Tonghuashun without any changes, including data, organizational structure, column names, connection mode, index, function, text interpretation, parameters, interface, operation or transfer method, and etc.” At present, the ninety-nine percent figure claimed by the spokesman refers to the interface, operation, or transfer method and database. Even if this claim is true, it is still not certain that Tonghuashun has infringed because the judgment of infringement depends on comparison of the source code of both parties’ software. Today, we would like to share the following information on the protection of software copyrights:

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Newly Revised Investment Catalogue: JV can Operate Online Music in China without VIE now

The Guiding Catalogue of Foreign Investment in China (the Catalogue) revised in the last year has come into effect on 30th January, 2012. The new Catalogue contains some modified regulation on foreign investment in China, and today Bridge IP Law Commentary would like to introduce you the change in respect of internet business in the Catalogue. (the image above is the logo of myspace.cn, invested by Mr. Rupert Murdoch through VIE, which is claimed temporary shut down for technology reasons)

I. Permission of foreign investment in online music industry

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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.

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