On April 24, 2019, the Shanghai Pudong Court (Court) announced its judgment that Mr. Zhou Meisen, famed author of the novel and screenwriter of the hit TV drama, In the Name of the People, did not infringe upon the copyrights claimed by Liu Santian in her book, Anxiang.  Ironically, the judgment was on the same date as the World Intellectual Property Day.

King & Capital's litigation partner, Mr. Jin Jie, successfully led the defense of Zhou Meisen in this celebrated trial.

The trial on this copyright infringement claim aroused national interest. At the time when the Court announced its decision, nearly 50 persons attended, including representatives of the people's Congress from the Pudong New Area, members of the CPPCC, journalists from the Central Committee, and the Shanghai media.

In March 2017, the anti-corruption themed television drama, In the Name of People, was a national hit all over China.  The television drama, based on the novel of the same name, was authored by Zhou Meisen. Zhou also wrote the screenplay for the television drama series.  After Zhou's success, the plaintiff, Liu Santian, claimed that both the novel and television drama was a plagiarism of her book.  Liu sued Zhou as well as the seven co-producers for copyright infringement, demanding they remove the television drama from the television market, In the Name of People, and they compensate her for economic losses of 18 million yuan.

In the infringement case, the Court decided that Zhou Meisen's works did not constitute an infringement and rejected the relief demanded by the plaintiff. Zhou's victory was the result of a staunch litigation defense put on by Jin Jie, a senior partner of King & Capital.

At trial, Jin Jie argued that there was no plagiarism as the two works departed significantly in many respects. Notably, the main plot, the themes, the storyline, and the direction in both works differed significantly.   As a result of the differences in both works, Liu Santian had failed to prove her copyright infringement claim with any supportable, factual evidence.

The efforts of Jin Jie were well-noted by the client, Zhou, especially his new respect for China's rule of law, which was exercised by the Court.   Following the sentence, Zhou summed up his admiration for the litigation process and result expressing, "the sentence of the judge is based on both the fact and the law, which is fair and objective, with well-founded analysis and an incisive argument. It is very convincible."

Congratulations to Jin Jie, our leading partner of the firm's litigation practice.