Taiwan singer regains control of copyrights for his famous songs

Well-known Taiwan singer and songwriter, Chyi Chin, chose to confront with Universal Music Publishing Ltd. Taiwan (“Universal Music”) at court to fight for the copyright for his music.  In 2014, the Taiwan Supreme Court decided in favor of Chyi Chin and thus he claimed back the copyrights for his 27 famous songs.  After that, Chyi Chin again initiated an action with the Taiwan IP Court against Universal Music for other 16 songs (the “songs in dispute”) and this time he also sought return of Universal Music’s unjust enrichment.

Universal Music defended itself by saying that Zong Yi Co., Ltd. (Chinese: 綜一股份有限公司; “Zong Yi”) had hired Chyi Chin to create the songs in dispute under commission since 1986 and Chyi Chin had assigned to Zong Yi the copyrights for the lyrics and melody and also recording for these songs.  After that in 1990, PolyGram successfully acquired Zong Yi and later merged with Universal Music, and thus Universal Music legally obtained copyrights for the songs in dispute. 

According to the IP Court, the certificate of copyright transfer for the songs in dispute as provided by Universal Music bears several kinds of signatures and impressed seals of Chyi Chin (“齊秦” in Chinese), but they are all different from that provided by Chyi Chin himself.  Such difference made it groundless to establish the alleged fact that Chyi Chin indeed transferred the copyrights for the songs in dispute to Zong Yi at that time.  In this regard, the IP Court decided that Chyi Chin should own and hold the copyrights for the songs in dispute. 

As to the copyright infringement and damages payment issues, the IP Court found no ground to demand Universal Music to pay Chyi Chin the claimed damages because Chyi Chin had not filed the lawsuit until 2013, which already passed the 10-year prescription, and because there is no evidence proving that Universal Music held the subjective intention or had negligence to infringe upon the copyrights of the songs in dispute.  The IP Court, however, ruled that Universal Music should return to Chyi Chin the unjust enrichment of TWD220,000 and more gained by providing the songs in dispute to the providers of karaoke tapes and other people for use.  This case is appealable.  (March 2016) 
/CCS