Recently, Beijing No.3 Intermediate People's Court made a first-instance ruling in favor of Adidas Co., Ltd (hereinafter as Adidas) against a natural person surnamed Qin and Guangxi LeQiu Sporting Goods Co., Ltd (hereinafter as LeQiu) for copyright infringement.
Adidas filed a lawsuit claiming that its copyright of official game football of Brazil's Confederations Cup was infringed by Qin and LeQiu Co., Ltd, who jointly manufactured footballs using the design of Adidas, and exhibited and sold them at China International Sporting Goods Fair. Adidas requested that the defendants should stop infringement immediately and make a compensation of 50,000 RMB for their economic loss.
On the trial, the court held that the design pattern on football is a combination of art and practicality, and the design involved in the case, including the color design and the design of dots, lines and color patches expresses the author’s innovative thought and has its originality. Therefore, the design belongs to the type of works of art covered by copyright law, and the defendants’ use of the alleged design on football without authorization of Adidas constituted copyright infringement. Accordingly, the court made a first-instance judgment ruling that the two defendants should cease infringement and pay a total of 11,000RMB compensation for Adidas.
