TOKYO, May 8 -- Yamaha Corporation (TSE 1st Section: 7951,
Head Office at Hamamatsu-shi, Shizuoka; President: Mitsuru Umemura,
hereinafter: Yamaha) has announced that the Company secured a favorable
ruling and settlement in its copyright infringement lawsuit in China.
Yamaha brought a lawsuit against Deli Electronics (Shenzhen) Co., Ltd.
(Head Office: Shenzhen, Guangdong), a Chinese manufacturer of electronic
musical instruments, and three other companies in the Beijing Second
Intermediate People's Court in November 2006, regarding infringement of
copyrights on accompaniment style data (hereinafter, Style Data), created
originally by Yamaha and incorporated in its electronic musical
instruments. In December 2007, the Court, after proceeding with a portion
of its deliberations on evidence, issued a judgment recognizing Yamaha's
claims as justifiable as regards the portion covered by its deliberations.
The Court judgment contained the following major points: (1) Style Data is
intellectual property to be protected under copyright laws, (2) Yamaha
holds the copyright to the 26 Style Data that were examined and
deliberated, and (3) The actions of the defendants were violations of
copyrights. Therefore the Court ordered them to stop using the Style Data,
suspend sale of products incorporating the data, pay compensation for
damages to Yamaha, and apologize.
Thereafter, the defendants did not appeal and the Court's judgment was
finalized. Following further deliberations, the Court issued a settlement
proposal to Yamaha and the defendants. A settlement favorable to Yamaha was
reached on April 29.
The Style Data copied by the defendants without authorization was
contained in Yamaha's PSR-640 portable keyboard, originally introduced in
1999 and sold worldwide. The defendants used this Style Data in their
MEDELI-brand electronic musical instruments manufactured and sold in China.
Yamaha, therefore, sued the defendants on the grounds that use of Style
Data was an infringement of its copyrights.
Regarding the Court judgment, Atsushi Muramatsu, General Manager of
Yamaha's Legal & Intellectual Property Division, made the following
comment: "The judgment was the world's first affirming that Style Data is
intellectual property to be protected under copyright laws and that
unauthorized copying is a copyright infringement. Yamaha regards this
judgment as epoch-making and will take a resolute stand against such
infringements going forward, while continuing to respect and protect
intellectual property."
Contact:
Mr. Misao Tanaka
Public Relations Division
YAMAHA CORPORATION
Tel: +81-3-5488-6601
Fax: +81-3-5488-5060
E-mail address: misao_tanaka@gmx.yamaha.com
17-11, Takanawa 2-chome, Minato-ku
Tokyo 108-8568
http://www.global.yamaha.com
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