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Woman Professor Files Lawsuit Against State Postal Bureau
An associated professor in Beijing has filed a lawsuit on March 2 against State Postal Bureau (SPB) for infringing her papercut copyright, demanding a compensation of 5 million yuan (US$600,000).
As the Beijing First Intermediate People's Court opened a court session July 24 to hear the case, China Geology University's Guo Xian lowered her compensation demand to 3 million yuan (US$360,000).
In her previous files, Guo noted that five of the 12 types of the "2000 China Post Awarding Cards" issued by the SPB plagiarized her paper cut works published in March 1997 in a collection, without getting her approval.
She affirmed that the SPB did not get her consent. Moreover, they also changed the round shapes of her works into oval and added words "Happy Spring Festival" on them.
Guo thinks that these actions violated various types of her copyright.
At the court hearing, lawyers representing the SPB defended that SPB has not infringed Guo's right, saying:
First, when they used some of papercut works which did not carry any sign of Guo's name, it is hard to determine whether they are made by Guo herself or just those she collected from the masses.
Second, as the design and the concept of the five paper cuts are all very common and of folk art nature, they are not creative and can not be protected by the law.
Third, since the greeting cards made by the SPB do not aim for any profit but targets for carrying forward Chinese culture, they do not think they have infringed Guo's copyright with an aim of making profits.
The Beijing court did not move to any decisions that day.
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