Beijing IP Court Second Instance Judgment Dismissed Dao Ke Ba Ba Appeal

Beijing Intellectual Property Court made a judgment on the copyright ownership and infringement dispute between Dao Ke Ba Ba (Beijing) Network Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as “Dao Ke Ba Ba”) and WANFANGDATA CO.,Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as “Wanfang Data”). Previously, Dao Ke Ba Ba refused to accept the first-instance judgment made by the People’s Court of Haidian District, Beijing (court of first instance) and appealed. The second-instance court made the judgment of “rejecting the appeal and maintaining the original judgment” according to law.

Wanfang Data began to cooperate exclusively with Chinese Medical Journal on January 1, 2007. It has exclusive authorization for the electronic version of series of journals, periodicals and papers published by Chinese Medical Journal, with the right to copy, issue, disseminate information on the Internet and make revenue. Any organization or individual must obtain the authorization of Wanfang Data through legal commercial channels when using the electronic journals of Chinese Medical Journal.

In 2016, Dao Ke Ba Ba’s website (https://www.doc88.com) used Chinese Medical Journal’s periodicals and full texts of articles, seriously infringing the legitimate rights and interests of Wanfang Data. After many times of failed communications, Wanfang Data filed a lawsuit against Dao Ke Ba Ba on nearly 1,000 articles in Beijing Haidian Court.

Due to the excessive number of cases, Beijing Haidian Court selected 20 of the articles and made a first instance judgment on November 6, 2017: Dao Ke Ba Ba, without authorization, provided reading and downloading services for 20 papers on its website and asked consumers to “pay for points”; its behavior constituted infringement and should bear infringement liability according to law. Dao Ke Ba Ba argued back and denied its infringement on the grounds that it only provided storage services. The court refused to believe the argument, and sentenced Dao Ke Ba Ba to compensation of economic losses of 30,000 Yuan and reasonable expenses of 5,000 Yuan to Wanfang Data.

Dao Ke Ba Ba refused to accept the first-instance judgment and appealed. On July 21, 2019, Beijing Intellectual Property Court’s second-instance judgment dismissed the appeal and maintained the original judgment.

October 21, 2019

Source: Wanfang Med Online

Photo from: 699pic.com