To strengthen copyright protection, and to implement relevant provisions of the Economic and Trade Agreement between the US and China, on August 5 2020, the Supreme People’s Court of the People’s Republic of China (the SPC) issued a draft Opinions on Strengthening the Protection of Copyright and Copyright related Rights (å…³äºŽåŠ å¼ºè‘—ä½œæƒå’Œä¸Žè‘—作æƒæœ‰å…³çš„æƒåˆ©ä¿æŠ¤çš„æ„è§) for public consultation.
In principle, the opinions encourage courts to greatly shorten the trial period of cases involving copyright and copyright related rights by exploring the division of complicated cases from simple cases so as to improve litigation efficiency.
With the highest number of internet users globally, China has a great number of individuals and entities accessing the internet for different types of internet services. As a result, any dispute arising from the digital economy will inevitably produce digital evidence. To reflect this, the opinions explicitly recognise blockchain evidence as one form of admissible evidence. Specifically, in accordance with the opinions, the courts are required to support the parties to store, fix and submit evidence through blockchain and digital timestamp.
Notably, one of the key goals of the opinions is to alleviate the right holder’s burden of proof. Unlike trademarks and patents, which are granted by the relevant administrative authorities, the copyright of works is obtained automatically and a registration is not a requirement for copyright protection. If the requirement of evidence is too strict, it will not be conducive to copyright protection. Therefore, complying with Article 1.29 of the Economic and Trade Agreement between China and the US, the opinions require the courts to presume that the copyright or copyright related rights claimed by right holders subsist in the relevant works, performances and sound recordings.
