Suzhou University has of late narrowly avoided a spot of egg on its face as a paper discussing infringement issues in one of its journal publications was sued for just that, infringement, before the plaintiff withdrew the lawsuit at the last moment.
According to the “Journal of Suzhou University (Law Edition)” official WeChat account on 16 November, the University recently received a civil ruling from the People’s Court of Huqiu District in Suzhou, allowing the plaintiff to withdraw its case.
The academic paper in question, “Recognition and Processing Rules of Disclosed Personal Information”, published in the fourth issue of the Journal in 2021, discussed the issue of whether subsequent use of personal information disclosed in judicial documents constitutes infringement.
The plaintiff, surnamed, Yi, one of the parties to the case, then enters our narrative. In May of this year, Yi filed a civil lawsuit with the Huqiu Court against Suzhou University on the grounds that the publication had violated his privacy rights.
As The Paper has reported, the crux of Yi’s argument was the fact that his name, as it appeared in the publication in question, was not anonymised in the annotation, constituting an infringement of his rights.
In reply, the editorial department of the journal argued to Yi that the case quoted in the paper was a public trial case and was not confidential, while the author of the paper obtained the content of the case through public channels.
That same department also contacted Wang Haiyang, the author of the paper and a doctoral candidate at Xiamen University Law School, who said the use of Yi’s name fell within the scope of fair use. Wang further added that the use of the information would not have a negative impact on reputation.
The bizarre case was then to have more ridicule poured upon it, as the parties involved were summoned to appear on court on 13 November. While the Journal’s editor-in-chief was present, Yi simply failed to show up. Yi would subsequently mail an application to withdraw the lawsuit, to which the Court readily acquiesced.
While the case makes a little of a mockery of the legal system, it can also be thought of as a victory for academia, in so far as being able to include the real names of sources or expert opinion solidifies the credibility of learned institutions and the papers they publish.
