United States of America

Japan

Copyright and Related Rights

11. Please explain the criminal and civil remedies available for copyright infringement and the extent to which they fully implement the obligations in TRIPS Articles 41, 45, 50 and 61. In the response, please specify, inter alia, whether these remedies may include the seizure, forfeiture and destruction of infringing articles and equipment used to make the infringing articles, as required by Article 46 and 61, and the manner in which the grant of civil provisional relief is provided in accordance with TRIPS Article 50.

(1) Article 114 of the Copyright Law stipulates the presumption of the amount of damages caused by infringements and corresponds adequately to Article 45 of the TRIPS Agreement which stipulates "damages". Article 112 of the Copyright Law provides for the right of demanding cessation against infringements and corresponds adequately to Article 46 of the TRIPS Agreement which stipulates "other remedies". Furthermore, Article 119 of the Copyright Law provides for penal punishments against infringements and corresponds adequately to Article 61 of the TRIPS Agreement. Article 112(2) of the Copyright Law provides for the seizure and the destruction of infringing articles and equipment used to make the infringing articles and Article 19 of the Penal Code provides for forfeiture. (2) A copyright owner may claim civil remedies, such as compensation by filing a civil case to the court against a person who infringed his/her copyright. The outline of the procedure in regard to the provisional measures is as follows: The procedure for the provisional measures is initiated by the request of a party concerned. Following the hearings from the party (or both parties), the court determines whether the legal requirements for adopting the provisional measure are met. If the court determines to adopt the measure, the order of preservative measure is served on the defendant. The defendant may request the court the annulment of the order by raising of an objection. In addition, based on the request from the defendant, the court which issued the order shall fix a certain reasonable period and require the applicant: (i)to file the case on the merits and to provide written evidence of filing the case on the merits within such period. (ii)to provide written evidence of pendency of case within such period, if the case is already filed. In case the applicant fails to provide such evidence within the required period, the defendant may request the court the annulment of the order of preservative measure.