The Boundary Of Using Forensic Tools In Copyright Infringement Cases

Intellectual property rights include mainly copyright, trademark, patent and tradesecret. Within them, copyright is the easiest to be obtained， the most abstract and fragileone. On the other hand, with the institutionalization of our country, the value ofintellectual property rights, including copyright, has been highly weighted. As a result,copyright infringement cases emerge. In the21stcentury, most works protected under theCopyright Law are stored in electronic devices. Infringing acts, as a consequence, existthrough electronic ways. Therefore, computer experts are frequently involved incopyright infringement cases. Among them, software copyright infringement cases, the most.On the other hand, experts taking part in litigations are called forensic experts inour country. Their participation in litigations are called forensic activities, under thelaws of our country. Those rules are developed mainly in the last decade and are way frommature. The boundaries of forensic activities in litigation procedures remain to bediscussed. A lot of questions and concerns have been raised for now.This article starts from the basic concepts of intellectual property rights and thebasic principles of forensic rules. Through case study, some now existing issues inforensic activities are raised, which reflects more questions in other cases. From analysis,a logic way of reasoning is posted and suggestions in legal practice and legislation areproposed.Except the Introduction, this article contains five main chapters.First Chapter talks about the basic concepts and its philosophy basis of intellectualproperty rights. Four main intellectual property rights, including copyright, trademark,patent and trade secret, are also discussed in detail. Based on the above information, it can be concluded that the characteristics of intellectual property rights areinvisibility, easy to be copied, abstract, and being related to a wide range of subjects.Because of the above characteristics, the nature of forensic activity in intellectualproperty infringement cases is triggered in the next chapter.Chapter Two talks about the basic situation of forensic evidence legislation in ourcountry. No specific rule on forensic activity in intellectual property cases has everbeen enacted yet. Many questions have been posed by scholars in this field and remain tobe discussed.Chapter Three first introduces the history why software is protected under the CopyrightLaw and its reasonableness. Then, with regard to principles in judging copyrightinfringement, a logic reasoning of judging software copyright infringement is introduced.Lastly, through case study, issues in forensic activities in software infringement casesare pointed out.Chapter Four introduces a way of reasoning and setting of boundary in using forensictools in software copyright infringement cases, and then other copyright cases.The last Chapter summarized all analysis above and poses suggestions in definingforensic opinions in all intellectual property cases and other cases and also in futurelegislation.