An interesting case recently came to the attention of the Intellectual Protection blog regarding a case of alleged copyright infringement by a large software company against a software designer from China.
Although, we don’t really cover intellectual protection in China we thought it would be interesting for our readers to hear the story of Dr. Yue in his own words. Readers can research the case for themselves and are free to make comments to carry out a discussion on the rights and wrongs of this case…
“I request your attention to the following case that may profoundly affect copyright law. My contact information is at the end of the message.
Dr. Yue, an accomplished software developer, sued Sun Microsystems for software piracy in U.S. federal court (C07-05850-JW, ND CAL). The software copyright was registered in Dr. Yue’s personal name. Sun had distributed vast number of pirated copies of Dr. Yue’s software. Evidence included defendants’ sales records and internal emails admitting the wrongdoing. In an email, a manager of Sun even warned that the unauthorized copying might cause trouble for Sun. But Sun and its subsidiary continued the piracy activity for years and even let others make unlimited copies.
The federal court ignored the evidence (including Dr. Yue’s copyright) and entered judgment in Sun’s favor. At a hearing, the presiding judge told Dr. Yue: “I am going to have you taken out if you don’t be quiet” (quoting transcript). The court prohibited Dr. Yue from representing himself, then ordered him to pay $219,949.90 to the Sun for attorney’s fees under the Copyright Act, most of which was generated after the case was terminated, including over $60,000 for Sun’s request for attorney’s fees itself.
The cases have generated a public outcry. Over 200 people from U.S., Europe and China have petitioned the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeal to carefully review the lower court’s decisions*. Hundreds of web sites in China had published the story and the court decision.
See http://www.american-justice.org for case information, such as the complaint and evidence, deposition and hearing transcripts, court orders and other record, including Dr. Yue’s point-by-point analysis of the court orders.
Contact: Dr. Don (Dongxiao) Yue”
Intellectual Protection 