Basic facts
Autodesk and Adobe, the two U.S. software companies believed that Ablues Design in Shanghai had copied, installed and used their AutoCAD, Photoshop, Acrobat and other series of computer software for commercial purpose without permission. Since the computers installed with unauthorizedcomputer software were all in the operation site of Ablues Design, the petitioner was unable toobtain relevant evidences objectively. As the involved evidences were intangible computer software and relateddata easily to be hidden or destroyed, in case that they were transferred, hidden or destroyed it would be hard to recover again and cause difficulties to the identification of relevant facts, the petitioner requested Shanghai Intellectual Property Court for preserving the evidencesprior to the proceeding of action.
Results of judgment
Shanghai Intellectual Property Court after the examination held that the evidences that petitioner had applied to preserve conformed to the conditions that evidences might be destroyed or might be hard to recoverlater as stipulated by law. Moreover as the petitioner could not collect the above evidences by itself due to objective reasons, such applicationmet the conditions of evidence preservation prior to the proceeding of the action,the court ruled that preservation of evidenceshould be donetothe relevant information with regard to the above software on the computers within the operation site of the respondent and other facilities. After the ruling of evidence preservation, the competent departments of Shanghai No.3 Intermediate People's Court and Shanghai Intellectual Property Court worked closely and gave full play to the institutional advantage of “joint work” to successfully complete the evidence preservation prior to the proceeding of the action.
Typical significance
It was the first evidence preservation prior to the proceeding of the action concerning the computer software since the establishment of Shanghai Intellectual Property Court. Since it related to the evidence preservation on nearly 400 computers in a large workplace, the task was also quite professional and complicated. Shanghai Intellectual Property Court engaged relevant technical experts to assist the preservation anddeveloped a thorough work plan for the preservation of evidence beforehand. The court established a technical expert team, a site check team, site control team and other work teams andclarified their responsibilities to cooperate with each other. During the preservation, each team operated regularly, preserved evidence in order and successfully completed the task. Thecase provided referentialworking procedures and thoughts on how to explore the enforcement mechanism compliant with the characteristics of cases on intellectual property, enhancethe connection of enforcement with the trial, improve the enforcement efficiency and accuracy of preservation judgment and protect the legitimate interests of right owners.
