4 February 2021
On November 16, 2020, the Supreme People’s Court, in order to effectively strengthen copyright protection in the fields of literature, art, and science, and give full play to the role of copyright trials in regulating, guiding, promoting, and guaranteeing cultural construction, according to the Copyright Law of the People’s Republic of China and other laws Provisions, combined with the reality of the trial, now provide opinions on further strengthening the protection of copyright and copyright-related rights. details as follows:
1. Strengthen the protection of creators' rights and interests, make overall arrangements for the interests of communicators and the public, vigorously improve the quality and effectiveness of case trials, promote the pilot work of diversion of complicated cases from simplified cases, and strive to shorten the trial period of typed cases involving copyright and copyright-related rights. Improve the evidence rules for intellectual property rights litigation, allowing parties to save, fix and submit evidence through blockchain and other methods, and effectively solve the problem of difficulty for intellectual property rights holders to provide evidence. Support the parties’ behavior preservation, evidence preservation, and property preservation requests in accordance with the law, and comprehensively use a variety of civil liability methods, so that right holders can receive more comprehensive and adequate relief in civil cases.
2. Natural persons, legal persons, and unincorporated organizations whose names are usually signed on works, performances, or sound recordings shall be presumed to be the copyright holders of the works, performances, or sound recordings or the right holders of copyright-related rights, but there is evidence to the contrary Except for those that are sufficient to overthrow. Where the presumption of signature rules are applied to determine the ownership of copyright or copyright-related rights and the defendant has not submitted evidence to the contrary, the plaintiff may no longer submit a rights transfer agreement or other written evidence. In the litigation procedure, if the defendant asserts that it is not liable for infringement, it shall provide evidence to prove that it has obtained the right holder’s permission, or has the circumstances stipulated by the Copyright Law that it can be used without the right holder’s permission.
3. The parties request the immediate destruction of infringing copies and materials and tools mainly used for the production or manufacture of infringing copies. Except for special circumstances, the people's court shall support it in civil litigation, and in criminal litigation, it shall order the destruction ex officio. If it is not suitable for destruction under special circumstances, the people’s court may order the infringer to dispose of the above-mentioned materials and tools in an appropriate manner outside of the commercial pipeline to eliminate the risk of further infringement as much as possible. The cost of destruction or disposal shall be borne by the infringer. Where the infringer requests compensation, the people's court shall not support it. In criminal proceedings, if the right holders request that the infringing copies, materials and tools should not be destroyed temporarily, the people's court may support it. Where the right holder requests the infringer to compensate the infringer for the storage expenses paid by him in subsequent civil or administrative cases, the people's court may support it.
4. If it is difficult to calculate the actual loss of the right holder, the illegal income of the infringer, and the royalties, the types of rights requested for protection, market value, the subjective fault of the infringer, the nature and scale of the infringement, and the severity of the damage should be considered comprehensively. , Reasonably determine the amount of compensation in accordance with the copyright law and judicial interpretations. Where the infringer deliberately infringes and the circumstances are serious, and the right holder requests punitive damages, the people's court shall review and determine it according to law. The people's court shall support the reasonable costs of safeguarding rights that the right holder can provide evidence to prove, including litigation costs and attorney costs, and shall be calculated separately when determining the amount of compensation. If the infringer has been determined by an effective court judgment or administrative decision to constitute an infringement, or has reached a settlement agreement with the right holder for the same infringement, and continues to carry out or repeats the alleged infringement in a disguised form, it shall be deemed to have intentional infringement. Full consideration should be given when determining civil liability for tort.
5. It is necessary to clearly inform the parties of their possible legal responsibilities in a dishonest litigation through a letter of commitment in good faith litigation, urge the parties to properly exercise their litigation rights, actively perform their litigation obligations, actively and honestly produce evidence within a reasonable period of time, and act in the process of litigation. A true and complete statement.
For further information, please contact:
Wu Di, Lee Tsai & Partners
lawtec@leetsai.com
