(c) 1995 Copyright Nando.net
(c) 1995 Reuter Information Service
BEIJING (Oct 30, 1995 - 14:36 EST) - A Beijing court has found a
Chinese company guilty of copyright infringement for the first time
and officials of giant U.S. computer company Microsoft Corp said on
Monday they were hoping for punitive damages.
The October 12 court decision, revealed in the Chinese media on
Monday, found a major Chinese computer dealer guilty of copying
software illegally.
"We hope this is a very strong precedent," said Valerie Colbourn of
Microsoft, who is also vice-president of the Business Software
Alliance.
"We are very pleased that the court made this decision. Although we
are not so pleased with how long it took," Colbourn said by telephone
from Hong Kong.
The Beijing Intermediate People's Court found the Ju Ren Computer Co
had unlawfully duplicated and distributed Autocad, Lotus 1-2-3,
Windows 3.0, Microsoft Word, WordPerfect 5.2 and other software
programmes, a Microsoft official in Beijing said.
The case was filed in February 1994 by Microsoft, Autodesk Inc and
Word Perfect Application Group, Colbourn said.
The court was expected to deliver its decision on damages in early
November, Colbourn said.
Colbourn was unable to give the amount of damages the three companies
have demanded, but said it was substantial.
Ju Ren was found to have given customers their choice of software with
every purchase of a personal computer since at least the last half of
1993, the Economic Information Daily said.
"The software was all duplicated by (Ju Ren) in violation of China's
copyright law and its clause on computer software protection," the
Economic Information Daily quoted Business Software Alliance lawyers
as telling the court.
Ju Ren's lawyers told the court their salesman were tricked into
giving away the unlicensed software, the paper said.
The plaintiffs demanded damages calculated on the retail price of the
software and possible punitive damages since Ju Ren was charged of
continuing its giveaways after the case was filed, Colbourn said.
"This is a very big company engaged in this activity for a long time,"
she said.
But Colbourn said Microsoft was not interested in the damages so much
as in fighting such cases against software piracy in China.
She added that the company may soon be in a position to file similar
cases in five other Chinese cities.
In June, the Business Software Alliance won $78,276 in damages and
court costs for Microsoft and three other companies from Beijing Gaoli
Computer Co, which agreed to apologise publicly for illegally
reproducing and selling copyrighted software products. In return the
plaintiffs dropped their lawsuits.
Microsoft's Windows '95 Chinese language version is due to go on sale
in China next month, but bootleg copies are already widely available
on Chinese city streeets for 40 yuan ($5.0).
Chinese and U.S. negotiators met earlier this month in Beijing to
review progress under a March accord in which Beijing pledged to crack
down on rampant copyright piracy.
U.S. officials and software makers expressed their disappointment with
Chinese government promises to clamp down on piracy, saying that
progress had been too slow.