Beijing Higher People's Court Publishes Guidelines for Adjudication of Copyright Infringement Cases
The Beijing Higher People's Court has published the Guidelines for Adjudication of Copyright Infringement Cases, which summarise, refine, and supplement stipulations in previous guiding documents and address major issues in judicial practice involving copyright infringement cases.
The guidelines, comprising 160 articles in 11 chapters, cover the following topics: objects of rights; ownership of rights; determination of infringement of moral rights, property rights, and neighbouring rights; defenses; legal liabilities; and determination of infringement in respect of right of communication via the Internet, copyright in cinematographic works, and copyright in computer software.
The guidelines mainly:
1) specify the principles of adjudication of copyright infringement cases, in particular setting out the fundamental principles of "enhancing protection of copyright, encouraging creation of works, promoting dissemination of works, and balancing interests of parties concerned", and expound on the exercise of the right of action;
2) standardise the criteria on investigation of objects, consist the rules on determination of authorship, and state the four elements in investigation of works;
3) define the scope of protection of rights, elaborate on the determination of infringement of moral rights, property rights, and neighbouring rights, and lay down the factors of consideration for adjudication of common copyright infringement cases in practice;
4) enhance protection of rights by refining the stipulations on application of damages and basis of calculation thereof, and provide for the discretion in applying punitive damages in the event of malicious infringement.
