A local court Saturday ruled against the Beijing-based New
Oriental School in a copyright and trademark lawsuit brought by two
American educational organizations, and ordered the Chinese school
to pay some 10 million yuan (US$1.21 million) in compensation.
As the developer and sponsor of the widely recognized "Test of
English as a Foreign Language" (TOEFL) and "Graduate Record
Examination" (GRE), two examinations that students from non
English-speaking countries are required to take before applying to
graduate schools in the United States, the New Jersey-based
Educational Testing Service (ETS) has registered the copyright of
TOEFL and GRE test questions with the American Copyright Bureau,
and has registered "TOEFL" and "GRE" as trademarks in China.
The Virginia-based Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC),
developer and sponsor of the "Graduate Management Admission Test"
(GMAT), has also done the same procedures.
However, the New Oriental School, a well-known private English
training center, has been selling copies of TOEFL, GRE and GMAT
test questions for years to Chinese students who want to study
overseas without ETS and GMAC permission. Internet surfers can also
access the test questions by logging onto the New Oriental
website.
In 1997, the local industry and commerce administration
confiscated the illegal copies of ETS and GMAC test questions
produced by New Oriental, which admitted its infringement of ETS
and GMAC copyrights upon the confiscation but continued to sell the
illegal copies.
The Beijing No. 1 Intermediate People's Court found the
activities of the New Oriental School infringed on the rights of
ETS and GMAC and ordered the immediate termination of the illegal
activities.
The New Oriental School was also ordered by the court to hand in
all illegal copies of ETS and GMAC materials and to publish an
apology to the two American institutions in the Chinese newspaper
Legal Daily.
In addition, New Oriental has to pay 8.9 million (US$1.1
million) and 410,000 yuan (US$49,580) to ETS and GMAC respectively
for economic losses as well as shoulder the lawsuit fees of 1.016
million yuan (US$122,900).
According to lawyers of the New Oriental School, the decision on
whether to launch an appeal is subject to further consultation with
the school.
(Xinhua News Agency September 28, 2003)