By Liu Weifeng (China Daily)
Updated: 2007-08-21 07:06

A Chinese legal delegation is collecting evidence in a bid to sue Japanese TV stations accused of illegally broadcasting Chinese-made TV series.

The suit is the first of its kind involving the infringement of Chinese intellectual property rights by Japanese firms, the website of China's copyright watchdog said.

Ren Zaikuan, a lawyer at Beijing Gaomoke intellectual property rights agency and a member of the delegation yesterday told China Daily the lawsuit was in its second stage, of claiming compensation.

The collection of evidence on the Japanese side was complete and they were waiting for the Chinese side, he said.

"The Japanese partner of our delegation has sufficient evidence to charge channel 785 of SKYperfecTV station of copyright infringement," Ren said.

The Chinese TV series Bitter Herb (Kucaihua) was illegally broadcast by the station for the first time in the summer of 2005.

"We didn't give broadcast rights to SKYperfecTV," Zhang Xiaotian, the series' copyright owner was quoted by CCTV as saying.

After repeated investigations by the Japanese courts, channel 785 was banned from showing the series.

However, before the verdict was announced, Kucaihua was shown twice on the channel. The series is described as "classic red drama".

The copyright holder is seeking 20 million yuan ($2.6 million) in compensation, or 1 million yuan for each episode shown.

"This is not a single case. So far, at least 500 dramas consisting of 9,000 episodes have been illegally shown by a handful of Japanese stations, according to our investigation," Ren said.

Among the drama shows to have been illegally shown are Princess Huanzhu (Huanzhu Gege), Red Spider (Hong Zhizhu), The Outlaws of the Marsh (Shuihuzhuan) and Jade Goddess of Mercy (Yu Guanyin).

Ren and the delegation are trying to identify and organize all the copyright owners so they can file a class action.

Five companies, all copyright owners, have joined the team.

Tang Zhaozhi, the chief lawyer with the China Copyright Protection Center, which is affiliated to the national copyright watchdog, said in an interview with China Daily that China was seeing more IPR infringement cases against overseas violators as its international cultural and commercial exchanges grew.

(China Daily 08/21/2007 page3)