OT: Web Screen Display Judged to Infringe Copyright in First Case in Japan

[carey]

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I haven't seen any other kinds of pure-html protected as
copyrightable. This sounds similar to a few of the American cases,
(Tickets.com ) but with markedly different results.

http://www.nikkeibp.asiabiztech.com/wcs/leaf?CID=onair/asabt/cover/133673



Web Screen Display Judged to Infringe Copyright in First Case in Japan

June 25, 2001 (TOKYO) --
The Tokyo District Court on June 13 issued Japan's first judicial decision confirming that the
display interface written in HTML, such as the layout and link structure of Web pages, are
subject to copyright protection.

The ruling on the Web page display is the outcome of a lawsuit brought by Cybozu Inc., which
develops and sells Web-based groupware, against another software developer, NeoJapan Inc.
The Tokyo District Court issued an injunction acknowledging Cybozu's claims of copyright
infringement. The judgment is expected to have broad implications among businesses such as
application service providers that develop Web-based applications and e-commerce operators.

Cybozu filed the lawsuit in January, claiming a resemblance between the screen display of
its products and those of NeoJapan. It sought an injunction to stop the distribution and
licensing of NeoJapan's software on the grounds of copyright infringement.

In its judgment, the Tokyo District Court said that the screens in different Web
applications may end up looking quite similar because they aim for similar functionality.
 Regarded as a whole, however, the individuality of the creator is expressed in various aspects
 such as the screen layout of the individual screens and the order of screen transition based on
 the links.

Because a certain degree of creativity is evident, Web applications are subject to copyright
protection, the court decided.

However, the finding is inconclusive. Of the two NeoJapan software products cited by Cybozu,
the court issued an injunction acknowledging the infringement claim against iOffice version 2.43.
In regard to the current version, iOffice 3, however, while pointing out a similarity to the
Cybozu product, the court rejected the claim, saying that it "could not but feel some questions"
in declaring an explicit infringement of copyright.

Commenting on the judgment, Cybozu CEO Toru Takasuka said, "we are investing huge sums of money in
designing user-friendly screen layouts. To have someone just copy the whole thing without
putting in an ounce of work amounts to a considerable loss for the software industry.
We intend to continue pursuing our case for copyright infringement against iOffice 3."

In a press release, NeoJapan said, "rights protection for Web screens is going way too far.
It will hamper healthy market competition."

- --
Carey Lening

To know me is to run from me -- Nick Santucci
 carey                          mailto:carey@tstonramp.com

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