IPR private eyes sue for unpaid salaries

IPR private eyes sue for unpaid salaries

• Source: Global Times
• [09:08 March 17 2011]
• Comments

Two men hired by a movie distribution company to go undercover in Internet cafes and gather evidence of intellectual property rights (IPR) violations have sued the company for overdue payment. The Dongcheng district court heard the case Wednesday.

The two plaintiffs, surnamed Dou and Li, signed an agreement on July 25, 2009, with Netmovie, a Beijing-based company that owns the Internet distribution rights to many movies and TV series.

They were asked to go to Hebei Province to gather evidence against 500 Internet cafes for violating the company's IPR, reported the Legal Mirror. The company gave them leeway to "defend their rights," presumably by collecting royalties from the cafes where possible, according to the report.

"We went to net cafes and wrote down names of the movies and TV shows they were playing," the plaintiffs claimed, according to the paper.

"If we had been caught, we'd have been beaten at the most," they said.

Before going undercover, the two men were told to pay 1 million yuan ($152,068) as a guarantee for any royalties they could get from the Internet cafes, and that the company would cover their expenses, Dou reportedly told the court.

Then the two sides signed an additional agreement, dictating that if the two "undercover agents" made less than 1.5 million yuan before December 31, 2010, the company would make up the difference. If the profits exceeded 1.5 million, the two sides would split the difference, reported the Legal Mirror.

Dou and Li said they gathered evidence in Hebei and handed it over to the company, but the company refused to disclose what profits were made using that evidence and also would not return their 1 million yuan deposit.

The plaintiffs demanded that company return their deposit and pay another 1.5 million yuan, with interest.

The additional agreement changed the nature of the original contract and the company had to do all the work to defend its IPR, argued the defendant.

The company agreed in court to pay back the 1 million yuan, but refused to pay any other fees, the paper reported. The court did not reach a verdict Wednesday.

Global Times