YAMAHA& 美得理“伴奏风格”侵权案 |
4月19日，YAMAHA诉美得理等四家电子乐器公司侵权一案终于在北京二院有了审判结果。YAMAHA在2006年11月诉这四家公司侵害了YAMAHA创造的伴奏风格的版权。 北京二院此次判定伴奏风格也是知识产权，属于版权法保护的一部分，未经允许的复制伴奏风格数据就是侵权。这也是世界上第一次认定伴奏风格也是知识产权的一次判决。 这四家电子乐器公司在未经YAMAHA许可的情况下，复制了1999年生产的YAMAHA PSR-640电子琴里的风格文件，并将他们放入到美得理电子琴里使用，并在中国销售这些产品。 YAMAHA公司表示这次判决预示着法律进步的新纪元已经到来。 此案有一个重大疑问，集中在“复制”一词上，这个词可以有多种介绍方法，而结果也许不同： 违法：纯粹的把PSR-640里的伴奏风格文件拷贝出来，粘贴到自己的琴里使用 不违法：找人模仿PSR-640里的伴奏的风格，写出一份类似的伴奏风格放到自己的琴里 说不好违法不违法：找人模仿PSR-640里的伴奏的风格，写出一份完全一样的伴奏风格放到自己的琴里。违法不违法也许要看相似的程度 希望有内部人士能给本案一个正确的回应，也好让我们知道北京二院这个全世界第一的判罚与他们法院的名称没有直接关系。 来源：绿洲论坛 Yamaha Authorized the World’s First Copyright for Accompaniment Style Data Incorporated in Its Electronic Musical Instruments Yamaha Has Secured a Favorable Ruling and Reached a Favorable Settlement in Its Copyright Infringement Lawsuit in China Yamaha Corporation (Head Office: 10-1, Nakazawa-cho, Naka-ku, Hamamatsu, Shizuoka; President: Mitsuru Umemura; hereinafter: Yamaha) brought a lawsuit against Deli Electronics (Shenzhen) Co., Ltd. (Head Office: Shenzhen, Guangdong; hereinafter, Deli Electronics), a Chinese manufacturer of electronic musical instruments, and three other companies in the Beijing Second Intermediate People’s Court in November 2006, regarding infringement of copyrights on accompaniment style data (hereinafter, Style Data), incorporated in its electronic musical instruments, that was created originally by Yamaha. In its lawsuit, Yamaha requested that the defendants be required to cease the use of its Style Data and suspend sales of products incorporating this Style Data. In December 2007, the Court, after proceeding with a portion of its deliberations on evidence, issued a judgment recognizing Yamaha’s claims as justifiable about the portion. Thereafter, the defendants did not begin appeal procedures and the Court’s judgment was finalized. In addition, following deliberations on further evidence other than that already examined, the Court issued a settlement proposal to Yamaha and the defendants, in consideration of its previously issued judgment, and a settlement favorable for Yamaha was reached on April 29, 2008. The Court’s judgment was the first in the world to recognize that “Style Data is intellectual property that is subject to protection under copyright laws” and that “unauthorized copying of such Style Data is an infringement of copyrights.” Yamaha believes this judgment is an epoch-making legal development and holds the content of the settlement arbitrated by the Court in high regard since it recognizes virtually all of Yamaha’s assertions. Looking ahead, Yamaha will continue to work to respect and protect intellectual property and to take a resolute stand against the infringement of intellectual property rights. 1. Background of the Lawsuit The four defendants in the lawsuit copied, without authorization from Yamaha, the Style Data contained in Yamaha’s PSR-640 portable keyboard, which Yamaha began to manufacture in 1999 and has sold throughout the world, including China. The defendants incorporated the Yamaha’s Style Data in their MEDELI-brand electronic musical instruments and then manufactured or sold these instruments in China. Yamaha, therefore, brought a lawsuit against these four companies on the grounds that their use of Yamaha’s Style Data represented infringement of its copyrights. The Style Data of PSR-640 was copied onto the defendant’s MC-710 and five other electronic keyboard models, and each of the models contained approximately 70 among from the Style Data of PSR-640. Accordingly, Yamaha asserted there were a total of 425 infringements of its Style Data copyrights. Among these, in order to expedite its deliberations, the Court made a divisional trial that copying of 26 Style Data onto the MC-710 model represented infringement of Yamaha copyrights and proceeded with such partial deliberations, which led to the judgment described in section 2 below. In addition, following the examination of evidence other than that already examined, the Court proposed a settlement based on the judgment, which recognized Yamaha’s assertions, and a final settlement was reached. 2. Outline of the Judgment and Settlement The Court’s judgment recognized virtually all of Yamaha’s assertions and contained the following major points: (1) The Court recognized that Style Data is intellectual property that is to be protected under copyright laws. (2) The Court recognized that Yamaha holds the copyright to the 26 Style Data that were examined and deliberated. (3) In addition to recognizing that the actions of the defendants were violations of copyrights, the Court issued orders forbidding the use of Yamaha’s 26 Style Data in the defendants’ products and forbidding the sale of products incorporating Yamaha’s 26 Style Data. The Court also ordered the defendants to pay compensation for damages to Yamaha and to publish an apology in the newspapers. The content of the settlement arbitrated by the Court was as follows. These points apply to all the remained Style Data other than the 26 Style Data of the above judgment. (1) The defendants admit that the remained Style Data incorporated in the defendants’ keyboard models are the same as or similar to the Style Data of PSR-640 created by Yamaha. (2) In addition to recognizing that the actions of the defendants were infringements of copyrights, the defendants do not use Yamaha’s Style Data in the defendant’s products nor sell the products incorporating Yamaha’s Style Data. (3) The defendants pay compensation for damages to Yamaha, in addition to the compensation mentioned above. (4) The defendants hand a letter of apology to Yamaha. 3. Outline of the Defendants Defendant 1: Company name : Deli Electronics (Shenzhen) Co., Ltd. (Head Office: Nanshan-qu, Shenzhen; Representative and President: Zheng Gang) Lines of business : Manufacturing of electronic musical instruments, etc. Defendant 2: Company name : Medeli Electronics (Shenzhen) Co., Ltd. (Head Office: Futian-qu, Shenzhen; Representative and President: Zheng Gang) Lines of business : Sales of musical instruments, etc. Defendant 3: Company name : Beijing Guoyue Musical Instrument Store (Head Office: Chaoyang-qu, Beijing) Lines of business : Sales of musical instruments, etc. Defendant 4: Company name : Beijing Tongyunju Musical Instrument Store (Head Office: Fengtai-qu, Beijing) Lines of business : Sales of musical instruments, etc. Supplementary Information Explanation of “Style Data” and Automatic Accompaniment Function Yamaha’s automatic accompaniment function is an aid to music-making that allows the performer to play the melody, and, just by striking and holding a chord, electronic instruments equipped with this function then supply the accompaniment to the melody automatically. Yamaha classifies the genres of automatic accompaniments into various preset patterns, which include pop, jazz, latin, and dance music styles. Yamaha calls data of such music styles, that provides these accompaniments, “Style Data.” Yamaha’s portable keyboards, electronic pianos, and other electronic musical instruments incorporate this automatic accompaniment capability as one of their key functions. Style Data is necessary for automatic accompaniment, but we believe the quality and sophistication of this Style Data is one of the key features that appeals to customers and encourages them to buy our products. Therefore, Yamaha is continuing to create and develop even more appealing Style Data at all times. However, this requires sophisticated creative capabilities and major investments. 雅马哈公司宣布在中国的诉讼得到有利的判决与调解 雅马哈公司（TSE 1st Section:7951，总部所在地：静冈县浜松市；总裁：梅村充；以下简称：雅马哈）宣布，该公司在其于中国进行的侵犯著作权的诉讼中取得了有利的判决及调解。雅马哈于2006年11月就最初由雅马哈独创并储存在电子乐器中的伴奏音乐的侵权问题向北京市第二中级人民法院对中国的一家电子乐器制造商——得理电子（深圳）有限公司（总部所在地：深圳，广东）和另外三家公司提起诉讼。该法院在根据证据进行了部分审理之后于2007年12月作出判决，承认在其审理过的那一部分伴奏音乐中，雅马哈的诉讼要求是合理的。该法院的判决包含以下几个要点：（1）伴奏音乐属于受著作权法保护的作品，（2）雅马哈是所审议和审理的26首伴奏音乐的著作权人，（3）被告的行为侵犯了著作权，因此，法院命令他们禁止使用侵权的伴奏音乐，停止销售包含侵权伴奏音乐在内的产品，向雅马哈支付损害赔偿并赔礼道歉。 此后，被告没有提出上诉，法院的判决遂成为终审判决。在对其他伴奏音乐进行审理之后，该法院向雅马哈和被告提出了调解建议。4月29日达成了对雅马哈有利的调解。 被告未经授权所抄袭的伴奏音乐储存在雅马哈的PSR-640可携式电子琴中，该产品最初于1999年推出，在世界各地销售。被告在中国制造和销售的“美得理”牌电子乐器中使用了这些伴奏音乐。因此，雅马哈以使用这些伴奏音乐是侵犯了著作权为由对被告提起诉讼。 关于法院的判决，雅马哈的法务及知识产权部的总经理村松厚发表了如下评论：“此次判决是世界上第一宗确认伴奏音乐是受著作权法保护的作品、未经授权的抄袭是侵犯著作权的行为的判决。雅马哈认为这是一项划时代的判决，并将采取坚决的立场反对这种侵权行为的进一步发展，同时将继续尊重和保护知识产权。” 以上来自：www.yamaha.com |
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