Laying down law on copyrights, and wrongs (2)

The verdict last year found the US-based company guilty of "vertical monopoly" for setting minimum prices its distributors could charge for suture devices. The court awarded 530,000 yuan (US$85,109) in damages to the distributors for lost revenue.

Ding said he was not swayed by the high-profile name involved in the case.

"No matter whether it's a foreign or domestic company, for us, the only thing is delivering fair rulings according to Chinese laws," he said.

Software dispute

Ding became a judge at the Shanghai Higher People's Court in 1997, where he worked on civil and business cases. Seven years ago, he joined the intellectual property team.

His first case involved a software infringement dispute brought by Beijing-based Bejing Jingdiao Co Ltd.

The company produced free-download drawing software called JDPaint. It could be read only on programs installed on the company's machines, which were expensive and not always of top quality.

Soon, another company, Shanghai-based Shanghai Naikai Technology Co Ltd, developed Ncstudio software, which allowed other machines to read JDPaint and proved popular with users.

Jingdiao Co filed a lawsuit claiming infringement of its JDPaint copyright and demanding compensation of 485,000 yuan. In the end, the court ruled against the plaintiff.

"In this case, the JDPaint software could be seen as bundled with the company's machine, which is beyond the coverage of software copyright protection set forth by the nation's copyright law," Ding explained.

Or, put more simply: "It's like a doctor who writes a prescription for you but you can't read his scrawl," Ding said. "Then he tells you to go to a designated pharmacy to get your medicine because that's the only place that can read what he wrote. But, later, someone tells you he can decipher the handwriting, allowing you to buy the medicine at any pharmacy in the city at a cheaper price. What would you choose?"

The JDPaint case raised larger questions about how far-reaching intellectual property protection should stretch. It's an issue that Ding had to address in another case.

Important feature

A man Song Jianwen, an acknowledged innovator in integrated circuitry, sued the Shanghai branch of Mentor Graphics Inc, a US-based electronic design automation leader, for allegedly infringing his patented technology on its software HDLDesigner. Song's patented software allows easier and quicker connection to integrated circuits through columns shown on one screen.

But the court found that Mentor Graphics' software didn't have quite the same capability, and Song lost the case.

"Song insisted that the most important feature of his patent lay in the several columns," Ding said. "Mentor Graphics didn't have that technology, so it's not an infringement."

Ding said judges have to weigh evidence carefully and not become slaves to the claims any particular side puts in writing.

Sitting on the bench is a steep learning curve. Ding said the court has 63 experts it can consult in various, often technical fields.

"But we still need to keep learning and stay abreast of the latest advances in science and engineering," he said.

Shanghai is now applying for permission to set up its own intellectual property court to improve the quality of protection for businesses.