After a review of the evidence, the court has reached a conclusion on the first large-scale intellectual property case in China. According to reports, criminal charges will be leveled against officers of the Beijing Xinsanxun Investment Advisory Company for infringing upon another company’s business secrets.

 

On October 12, the chairman of the board of the Beijing Honglitong Investment Advisory Company showed relevant materials of a thickness of 50 centimeters. According to evidence taken from these materials, the Forensic Evaluation Opinion issued by the Forensic Evaluation Center of the Electronic Data Evidence Network in Beijing disclosed details of Xinsanxun Company’s illegal acts. According to evidence obtained by the criminal investigation division, the case involves an amount of money between 75 million RMB and 120 million RMB, and Xinsanxun Company’s illegal acts involve more than 16,000 clients. Given the amount of money involved and the case’s sphere of influence, the case is regarded as the top intellectual property violation case in China.

 

On June 22, 2009, a court made a final civil verdict for the tort case involving Budaozhe software with Honglitong Company as the plaintiff and Xinsanxun Company as the defendant. The court of appeals upheld the court of original jurisdiction’s verdict that as the manufacturer of the pirated Budaozhe software, Xinsanxun Company should immediately cease its acts of infringement upon Honglitong’s software copyright, should make a public apology in the China Securities Journal, and should pay Honglitong Company compensation in the amount of 45,000 RMB.

 

The chairman of the board of Honglitong Company stated of the case that the time and energy, the legal costs and the loss of tangible and intangible property caused by the tort cannot be weighed using a monetary sum. After three years of investigation, he believes that the truth about the pirated Budaozhe software has come out in the end. But, he maintains, it is a pity that the infringer is still continuing its illegal and criminal activities.

 

The evidence indicates that Xinsanxun Company exists in name only, but more Xinsanxun Company shell companies have been established and continue to sell Budaozhe software illegally. The title of Budaozhe software has since changed to Qushidashi, Zhice and several other new names.

 

According to an expert on intellectual property law, with regard to protection of intellectual property, enterprises often face the unenviable task of initiating difficult investigations, high legal costs and low compensation from favorable court decisions. Yet, violators have much to gain from breaking the law as they can obtain high profits relative to compensation they might have to pay to the lawful owner of the intellectual property. The amount of money involved in the Xinsanxun case exceeds by far the amount involved in another case involving the Tomatolei Company. If all of these efforts against intellectual property theft are ineffective, the credibility of the government will be hurt.

 

(Source: China Quality Newspaper)