Across China: Beijing

Copyright battle

Two leading Chinese publishers are battling each other over a claim of copyright infringement.

Li Shuxi, former director of Guangming Daily Press, sued Huang Shuyuan, the director of People Press, for allegedly copying 85 percent of Li's book. Li is demanding 108,000 yuan from Huang.

Li's lawsuit said he discovered what he called plagiarism when he bought a book, "Detecting Talents," written by Huang in May.

Li said he found that 144,000 characters of the 168,000-character book had been copied from his own book, "Li Shuxi's Comments on Strategy in HR Management." Li's book was published in March 2007.

Huang's representative at the court said Huang's book was based on another work, "A Mirror of National History," which was published in 1993. The publishing house reportedly had an agreement from two of the book's three authors for the new book. Huang's representative claims that Li had copied part of his book from the 1993 book.

But Li said he was the third author of the 1993 book.

The court did not deliver a verdict

Fighting plagiarism

A Chinese academic who has developed a software program to detect and prevent plagiarism in university papers is calling for stricter enforcement of regulations to curb plagiarism, Xinhua News Agency reported.

Shen Yang, an associate professor in the Information Management School of Wuhan University, developed the software that can detect and underline content similar to that in a database of 18.8 billion Web pages and 4.9 million papers.

The software, used in more than 20 universities and 100 magazines, was published in April 2008 to help university authorities and teachers check for plagiarism.

"We need a law to counter plagiarism in academic papers," Shen said.

Shen said his detection program is used only as a reference, and that suspect papers should be further examined to ensure that content similarities are not accidental.

He said he was updating his system to prevent plagiarists from making adjustments to avoid detection, and also to help authorities avoid misjudging accidentally similar papers as plagiarism.

Microsoft lawsuit

Microsoft filed a lawsuit against a do-it-yourself PC vendor in Zhongguancun, accusing Beijing Strong Well Future Technology Development of using pirated Microsoft software.

Microsoft is demanding 500,000 yuan in compensation, People's Daily reported.

The case was recently heard during a court session at First Intermediate People's Court in Beijing.

Microsoft said that it commissioned an intellectual property agency, accompanied by notary office personnel, to buy computers from Strong Well on Oct 16.

The personnel sent by Microsoft purchased four computers from the vendor's four outlets. According to the lawsuit, the personnel, monitored by the notary office staff members, bought another eight computers on Oct 27 and Nov 6.

Microsoft's lawsuit said that all Windows XP and Office 2003 software programs installed on the 12 computers were counterfeit.

Microsoft requested that the court order Strong Well to immediately stop the infringement of its rights and compensate the US-based company 500,000 yuan for its economic losses.

Strong Well's attorney accused Microsoft of engaging in a coercive purchase.

He said Strong Well only sells computer accessories, not whole computers, and prohibits employees from pre-installing software for customers.

However, the attorney for Strong Well said the investigators hired by Microsoft threatened the company's salesman by saying that they would return the products if the software was not pre-installed.

To close the deal and earn a sales commission, the salesman purchased pirated software on his own and installed it, the attorney said, describing it as the action of one salesman.

The court did not deliver a verdict

IP and watch makers

Unitalen, one of China's larger intellectual property (IP) law firms, signed a 10-year contract with the Horologe Association of China to represent its member watch and clock makers.

The firm, which has 450 attorneys, will provide consulting services and IP advice to the association, Li Lei, a Unitalen partner, said.

Meng Keren, chairman of the association, said many watch makers know too little about how to protect intellectual property rights associated with their craft, and that their awareness of IP laws will be enhanced through the contract with Unitalen.

(China Daily 07/06/2009 page9)