Study On The Infringement Judgment Of Interface Compatibility Information

As interrelating part of system programs, interface information is very important in computer programs. Due to programming specifications or compatible purposes and other reasons, there are extremely limited expression ways of interface information. With the rapid development of computer software industry, the copyright issues of interface information become increasingly obvious in recent years.Currently, the protection of computer programs in our country mainly depends on Copyright Law and Computer Software Protection Regulations, and as for the judicial problems of interface compatibility information, there is no explicit provisions. The unresolved Oracle and Google’s infringement complaint which has lasted four years not only starts the “War of the Worlds intellectual property cases ", but also triggers a lively explore of the software industry and the legal profession. In 2014, the third draft of Copyright Law also somewhat relates to this issue, indicating its corresponding attitude. However, due to the defects of legislation and the unclearness of the judgment standard, the views of the judges in every country in such cases are quite different, or even the opposite. Therefore, it is necessary to make an elaborate classification study in theory to this problem, summarize and analyze the present relevant cases, thus to guide the judicial practice to solve the disputes of interests.The main idea of the thesis is: first, choose three typical cases which have triggered a heated discussion in the United States, the European Union and China as the starting point, analyze and summarize the relevant contentious issues reflected in these three cases, and make theoretical discussion. And then, contrast these three cases in the United States, the European Union and China, and arrive the view of this paper according to the need of our judicial practice. This paper is divided into three parts:The first part is case analysis and summarization. By introducing three cases of “Oracle Prosecuting Google”, “SAS Prosecuting WPL”, "Intel prosecuting Dongjin”, it analyzed the different judgment evidences and results of each case and presented two common controversial points. 1) Whether interface information is within the scope of copyright protection; 2) Whether it is infringement to use compatible interface information.The second part is theoretical and practical discussions. Firstly, it analyzed the nature and classification of interface information on technical level. Secondly, it analyzed three principles of computer software copyright protection and three infringement judgment methods. Thirdly, it analyzed the attitudes and evidences of the two opposing viewpoints that interface information should be protected and unprotected. Fourthly, it analyzed the controversial points presented in this paper, combining the relevant judicial practices of the United States, European Union and China.The third part is the exploration of legal theory and judicial practices of using computer compatible interface information in China. Based on analysis of relevant cases, it is found that all studies on this issue around the world are in exploratory stage. Currently, the related laws and regulations are inadequate. Besides, it is very difficult to practically judge and technically define the nature of infringement of computer compatible interface information. As a result, the decisions of this kind of cases fluctuate repeatedly. Based on analysis of the three cases of the United States, European Union and China, this paper analyzed four aspects of judicial practice which should be noted and provided specific analysis steps for judging infringement of computer compatible interface information. The four aspects include excluding the use of descriptive interface information, excluding the use of interface information with innovation purpose, excluding legal use of interface information and excluding necessary use and similar traces.