A copyright case heard by the Beijing Internet Court (BIC) was included in a recently released list of the top 10 typical intellectual property right cases in Beijing. 

Hosted by the Beijing Intellectual Property Judicial Protection Association, the 2020 list of top 10 typical IPR judicial cases includes the three categories of trademark, patents and copyright. 

Moreover, the case's written judgment won the third prize of the Supreme People’s Court (SPC)’s excellent judgment document award and second prize in the 2020 annual judgment document award for the Beijing jurisdiction. 

In this case heard by the Beijing Internet Court, Chongde Animation, the copyright owner of the animation piece involved in the case, intended to broadcast the piece on the online video streaming platform iQIYI, yet the two sides failed to reach an agreement. Despite Chongde’s request to remove the piece from the platform, it was still available on iQIYI. Chongde thus filed a complaint with the district bureau of culture and tourism against iQIYI alleging infringement of its right of internet communication of the product, and requested investigation and penalization of iQIYI. 

After looking into the case, the bureau replied that the infringement was unsustainable and the case would be withdrawn without penalty. Chongde thus appealed to the administrative reconsideration, which was rejected by the district government. Chongde then went on to file a suit with the BIC. 

Key points of the ruling

- The overdue performance of the copyright administration involved was a violation of legal procedures.

- The administration involved concluded the case without a thorough investigation and evidence collection, which was a failure to establish the facts.

Judgment

The reply of the district bureau of culture and tourism and the decision of the district government on the administrative reconsideration were revoked. And the district bureau of culture and tourism was ordered to rehear the complaint by Chongde within the statutory period.

Significance

With China’s accelerated construction as an IP power country, the IP administrations are playing a bigger role in improving the business environment. Courts should help enhance the law enforcement capacity of the IP administrations by judicial adjudication.

The judgment of the case makes clear the specifics on timeline and scope of work for the copyright administrations in fulfilling their administration and supervision duties, and provides judicial precedents in standardizing law enforcement.