People usually think that intellectual property is a lofty concept, but in fact it exists widely in life, and online shopping is no exception. Beijing Xicheng Court today held a press briefing on typical cases involving intellectual property rights on online shopping platforms to answer questions related to intellectual property protection in online shopping.
Online shopping product infringement merchants and website owners are co-defendants
According to Wu Xianya, head of the Intellectual Property Tribunal of Xicheng Court, the number of intellectual property infringement cases on online shopping platforms has been growing in recent years. Rapidly, taking the Xicheng Court as an example, among the 644 intellectual property cases accepted this year, 146 cases only involved the JD.com online shopping platform, accounting for 22%. ?The types of these cases mainly include those who make profits by borrowing popular film and television works and hitchhiking, those who pretend to be well-known brands to sell counterfeit goods, those who illegally disseminate electronic books for infringement, and those who print patterns, patterns and other artistic works created by others on daily necessities for sale , these situations all involve infringement of the copyright and trademark rights of the right holder. Generally, the right holder will sue the online seller and the online platform as co-defendants. ?.
Xinli TV Culture Company, as the production unit of the TV series "Tiger Mom and Cat Dad", believes that merchants selling clothing on JD.com use the title of "Tiger Mom and Cat Dad" when promoting clothing products. , and used 47 stills, posters and TV series screenshots, infringing on its copyright. Therefore, Xinli Company filed a series of copyright lawsuits with the Xicheng Court against the merchants and JD.com as defendants. Coincidentally, in the Monster Hunt?WUBA?plush toy infringement case, Anle (Beijing) Film Distribution Co., Ltd., as the copyright owner of the Huba-WUBA series of art works in the movie "Monster Hunt", believed that JD.com's 41 registered merchants sold plush toys in the image of Huba-WUBA without permission, infringing on their copyright. Anle Company believed that JD.com, as an online shopping platform, failed to fulfill its review and supervision obligations and facilitated merchants’ infringements. It sued JD.com and the merchants involved in the case to Xicheng Court. After court mediation, most merchants admitted the infringement and actively compensated the plaintiff.
Products that come with e-books may involve hidden infringement
In addition to the above examples of daily necessities, as the Internet is highly popularized today, e-books have also become products for online shopping. one, and also faces the risk of intellectual property infringement.
According to Judge Wu, the illegal dissemination of e-books as we generally understand them mainly involves placing them directly on online platforms for sale for profit without permission. For example, in 2015, the well-known writer Zhou Guoping discovered that many companies such as Sichuan Wenxuan Online E-Commerce Co., Ltd. had electronically processed many of his works without permission and then uploaded them to websites to make profits through readers' online reading. Zhou Guoping believed that these companies had infringed upon his rights of reproduction, information network dissemination and other rights, so he filed a lawsuit. The dispute was later resolved through court mediation.
The other method of infringement is more subtle. Judge Wu said that some businesses use the form of giving away electronic copies of infringing books or video materials to attract consumers' attention and promote the growth of sales of other products. In the case of Beijing Science and Technology Publishing House suing Wuhan Taihe Company for infringement of the right to disseminate information on information networks, the defendant company, when selling ovens, gave consumers an electronic version of the plaintiff's officially published book "Learn to Bake with You" without the plaintiff's permission. After consumers purchase the oven, they can download it by themselves in the group sharing by joining a certain baking exchange station QQ group established by the defendant. ?This is an implicit copyright infringement model. This business model may infringe the copyright of related works and the neighboring rights of audio and video products. Judge Wu introduced that the court finally ruled that Wuhan Taihe Company should be liable for economic losses for the infringement in the QQ group.
To strengthen prevention and actively participate, the judge issued a "tripartite initiative"
With the current frequent occurrence of intellectual property infringement cases in online shopping, the handling of related cases has not been smooth sailing.
For the convenience of litigation, plaintiffs often file lawsuits at the place of residence of the online shopping platform. However, the operators being sued are often scattered across the country, and their registered addresses do not match their actual addresses. It is very difficult to deliver the goods, and merchants often avoid litigation. Because online shopping platforms are protected by the internationally accepted "safe harbor" principle, they will only bear joint and several liability for compensation if they are aware of the fact of infringement or fail to delete the relevant products after receiving a notice of infringement. Some merchants are not actively responding to lawsuits and failing to cooperate with the court. work situation.
In response to this situation, Judge Wu issued "Judges' Initiatives" to three types of entities: online shopping platforms, online merchants and consumers. For online shopping platform service providers, the judge suggested that the platform should fully shoulder its social responsibility in serving the healthy development of e-commerce, strengthen merchant qualification review and daily supervision, and fulfill its obligations of attention and review. At the same time, open channels for complaints, actively respond to infringement lawsuits, cooperate with judicial authorities to provide merchants’ contact information and addresses, and cannot stay out of the matter. For online merchants, the judge suggested that they should strictly control the purchase of goods to ensure that the source of the channels is legal. After learning that the goods infringe the intellectual property rights of others, they should strengthen remediation and actively respond to lawsuits. For consumers, the judge pointed out that infringing goods are often fake and shoddy products. Consumers should raise their awareness of intellectual property protection and refuse to buy high-imitation goods. At the same time, they should pay attention to checking product packaging and anti-counterfeiting labels. If infringement is encountered, they should retain evidence in a timely manner and report it to consumers. The association may file a complaint or file a lawsuit with the court in accordance with the law. ?The entire society's awareness of intellectual property protection is constantly increasing. We hope to work together with all sectors of society to start from each case and make unremitting efforts to create a harmonious, orderly, and law-abiding online shopping environment? Wu Xianya explain.