South China Morning Post

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 31, 1995

The Business Software Alliance (BSA) has won a landmark victory in China.

In a decision after trial, the Intellectual Property Chamber of the Number 1 Beijing intermediated People's Court has found leading retailer Beijing Juren Computer Company guilty of infringing BSA members' intellectual property rights.
Decisions on damages to be awarded to the BSA are to be made by the court after submission of particulars during the next week.

Juren, one of China's largest distributors of computer software, was found guilty of the illegal sale of software published by Autodesk, Microsoft Corporation, and WordPerfect Application Group.

Seized in the action was evidence of illegal software dealing including illegal diskettes and CD-TOMs, computers, and financial books and records held by Juren.

"We are extremely pleased that the court has ruled in favour of the BSA's member companies." said Stephanie Mitchell, vice-president of the BSA.

"This was one of the most blatant cases of software theft we have uncovered."

"We hope the judgement for damages will be a heavy one, not only to cover the considerable expense already incurred by the BSA, but to send a clear warning to all sellers of stolen software throughout China that software theft will not be tolerated by the authorities or the BSA."

Ms Mitchell added that the latest decision builds on the precedent set by the BSA's legal action against Gaoli Computer Company in Beijing, which was concluded in June this year.

Under the terms of the settlement, Beijing Gaoli Computer Company agreed to make a public apology and to guarantee not to infringe upon copyrights of the plaintiffs in the future, to pay the plaintiffs substantial compensation and to assume the plaintiffs' court costs, investigation costs, notary costs, and other related expenses.

In addition, Beijing Lianying Computer Corp settled its case with Novell, a BSA member, on similar terms in September this year.

"The outcome of this latest case against Juren marks a substantial step forward in the fight against software piracy in China, and does the Chinese judiciary substantial credit," Ms Mitchell said.

"Nevertheless, we think that the Chinese can do much more to enforce the protection of intellectual property as they agreed to do in the Sino-US Agreement on IPR Protection earlier this year."

"We hope that this judgment marks the beginning of renewed efforts as part of a more vigorous and sustained programme of intellectual property protection," she said.

David Buxbaum, the attorney who tried the Juren case, stated that the judges exhibited professional expertise.
Their knowledge in the handling of the case and trial would provide a model, he said.