Abstract: The software copyright infringement case of a large enterprise represented by Lingyun Yongran has been selected as one of the "50 Classic Cases of Intellectual Property Judicial Protection in Chinese Courts" by the Supreme Court and the "Top 10 Cases of Intellectual Property Judicial Protection in Shanghai Courts" by the Shanghai High Court
The defendant was established by 26 large and medium-sized enterprises with a registered capital of nearly 1.435 billion yuan. The defendant installed and used pirated software owned by Lingyun Yongran customers without authorization. After the client discovered the defendant's infringement behavior in 2007 and communicated and negotiated with them, the defendant refused to fulfill its obligation to supplement the purchase of the client's genuine software license according to the settlement plan. The client then sued him to the court in 2009 and entrusted Lawyer Yuan Xinzhong from Shanghai Lingyun Yongran Law Firm ("Lingyun Yongran") to provide legal representation services.
In this case, the defendant used a total of 450 sets of 9 categories of pirated software. However, due to the limitations of technology and operational practice, it was very difficult for the court to preserve software evidence in 2009, given that the infringement had the characteristics of concealment and immediate destruction of evidence; In addition, the legal system at that time was somewhat lacking, making it even more difficult for lawyers to achieve their goal of preserving a large amount of evidence to form a complete chain of evidence and prove clients' claims.
According to legal regulations, the maximum statutory compensation limit for software infringement cases is generally around 500000 yuan. In this case, the defendant has been continuously using pirated software on a large scale for several years, and combined with the pricing of the software involved by the client (the enterprise version software was priced at a minimum of over 20000 yuan and a maximum of over 220000 yuan at that time), its losses far exceeded 500000 yuan. If the compensation is judged entirely in accordance with the legal provisions, the compensation received is completely insufficient to compensate for the customer's losses.
Lawyer Yuan assisted clients in completing a series of tasks such as notarization, filing, evidence preservation, trial, and cross examination, and actively communicated with the court, enabling the court to discover many new pieces of evidence during the litigation preservation process, some of which were quite beneficial to the clients. In the end, the court ruled in favor of the client and the defendant should compensate the client 2.17 million yuan.
This case has to some extent broken the maximum compensation limit for software intellectual property infringement cases at that time, providing a typical case for the judgment of similar cases. In addition, after the completion of this case, the General Manager of the Information Worker Business Group in the Greater China region announced the launch of six new product lines of the next-generation commercial software platform for enterprise level users in China. The beneficial results obtained from this case have also to some extent cleared obstacles for customers to promote the official version of the aforementioned products.
It is worth noting that the judgment in this case was issued on April 22, 2010, which happened to be before World Intellectual Property Day on April 26 and the Shanghai World Expo. Based on the nature of this case as an intellectual property case, it not only curbed infringement and piracy activities, safeguarded the legitimate rights and interests of customers, but also sounded the alarm for enterprises that engage in similar infringement behaviors, calling on the public to pay more attention to intellectual property protection.
This case is of great significance and has been awarded numerous honors. Since 2007, the Chinese government has been focusing on promoting legalization and gradually shifting its focus from cleaning up the computer market and online infringement channels to the enterprise level. The successful verdict of this case in this context is not only conducive to promoting the practical implementation of the aforementioned policies, but also highlights China's high attention to overseas intellectual property rights and demonstrates the determination of the judicial department to have "zero tolerance" for infringement. This undoubtedly provides a good soil for more overseas intellectual property rights to enter the Chinese market and creates a better market environment for rights holders.
This case has been awarded numerous honors, including the "50 Classic Cases of Intellectual Property Judicial Protection in Chinese Courts" by the Supreme People's Court in 2010, the "Top 10 Cases of Intellectual Property Judicial Protection in Shanghai Courts" by the Shanghai High People's Court in 2010, and the "Top 10 Copyright Typical Cases in Shanghai" by the Shanghai Copyright Bureau in 2010.
This case has received high recognition from the client and has established a friendly cooperative relationship with Lingyun Yongran for nearly 20 years. This case is the first time that a client has filed a copyright infringement lawsuit against a large enterprise in China, and the court's judgment of 2.17 million yuan in compensation has also created the highest compensation amount since the client filed a software infringement lawsuit in China. The client expressed high satisfaction with the work of Ling Yunyongran and Lawyer Yuan in this case, and the two parties have reached a friendly cooperative relationship, which has been ongoing for nearly 20 years. In addition to software intellectual property litigation, the client has also entrusted Lingyun Yongran to handle numerous labor, sales contract, and other disputes. At the same time, there have been multiple collaborations in non litigation services such as notarization and legal document preparation.
