The Research About Legitimate Sources In Copyright Infringement Proceedings

With the development of economy and people’s awakening right-protection awareness, the number of the intellectual property infringement action is increasing year by year. Although the lawful rights of obligee are worth to be protected, it is undeniable that part of the infringers is “well-meaning”. In order to protect the lawful rights of these “well-meaning” infringers, some laws are established, such as article 70 in the patent law of the People’s Republic of China, the second paragraph of article 64 in the trademark law of the People’s Republic of China, article 53 in the copyright law of the People’s Republic of China and the article 19 in the interpretation of supreme people’s court about the applicable law in trying civil copyright disputation cases, which means that as long as the infringing products, goods, works could be proved that they have lawful sources, they could obtain liability exemption. However, these rules are facing a series of problems in judicial practice.First of all, what are "legitimate sources" ? Except that the trademark law of the People’s Republic of China stipulates the objective elements of “legitimate sources” in the latest implementation rules, the definition of “legitimate sources” is not given in other laws and regulations. Secondly, the defenses meet some kind of conditions subjectively to form the establishment of defense for the "legitimate sources", which is still controversial in practice. Finally, comparing to the regulations of “legitimate sources” in the patent law of the People’s Republic of China and the trademark law of the People’s Republic of China, the terms of “legitimate sources” in the copyright law of the People’s Republic of China is a bit different, which lead to the disputation in the copyright infringement actions about the application of the "legitimate sources" defense.Based on the reasons above, the defense problems of "legitimate sources" in copyright infringement proceedings are discussed in this topic. Three real relevant cases are selected, and their focus of disputation and the results of judgment are organized and analyzed, which is researched mainly from several aspects, such as the meaning of "legitimate sources", the applicable subject range of defense for "legitimate sources", objective proof standard, subjective fault, duty of care, the legal consequences of the defense and the supplementary of the parties. Besides, according to the differences and similarities of the trademark law of the People’s Republic of China and the patent law of the People’s Republic of China, some solutions this kind of case are offered.