HowNet sued 22 colleges and universities within half a year and withdrew the lawsuit, and obtained the purchase contracts of 11 of them-瞭新社

HowNet sued 22 colleges and universities within half a year and withdrew the lawsuit, and obtained the purchase contracts of 11 of them

2022-04-22

On April 17, the literature and information center of the Chinese Academy of Sciences was "overwhelmed" by the renewal cost of nearly "ten million levels" and "disabled CNKI database" due to the "harsh" renewal conditions. On April 19, HowNet responded, "through friendly negotiation, the ordering mode is being adjusted." On April 20, the upstream news reporter (reporting mailbox) baoliaosy@163.com ）According to the judgment document network, HowNet withdrew the lawsuit after suing 22 colleges and universities across the country in 2021 due to the dispute over the license contract for the use of computer software copyright. The investigation of upstream journalists found that before and after the withdrawal of the lawsuit, HowNet won the procurement contracts of 11 colleges and universities, with an amount of more than 6.36 million yuan. HowNet and the Chinese Academy of Sciences "shake hands and make peace"? Some colleges and universities say they are not happy On April 17, the document and information center of the Chinese Academy of Sciences stopped using HowNet due to nearly "ten million level" renewal fees and "harsh" renewal conditions. On the evening of April 19, CNKI released the description of cooperative services and responded that it would continue to provide normal services to the Chinese Academy of Sciences. According to HowNet, after the expiration of the agreement in 2021, in order to meet the document acquisition needs of scientific researchers and teachers and students, the document information center of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and HowNet agreed to extend the ordering service until March 31. During the transition period after April 1, HowNet continued its services without service suspension or interruption. HowNet will also continue to provide normal services to all institutes under the Chinese Academy of Sciences until the 2022 agreement is signed and the service is started. In fact, HowNet has been boycotted by colleges and universities due to frequent price increases. On April 20, Guangming Daily reported that many colleges and universities questioned the high price and rising price of HowNet services. Due to the sharp rise in the price of renewing HowNet, in January 2016, Wuhan University of Technology said that "the university can not reach an agreement with HowNet on the renewal price", and Peking University and Taiyuan University of technology also issued a notice about stopping HowNet. This storm has also affected many colleges and universities in Hebei, Shandong, Yunnan and other places. According to Guangming Daily, the colleges and universities concerned soon re ordered HowNet services, but this does not mean that the relevant problems have been properly solved. "Students and teachers should use it. HowNet is the only one, and we are forced to have no choice." The person in charge of the above-mentioned University Library told Guangming Daily. HowNet has sued 22 universities, and some universities have been sued as many as 10 times Whether the matter is as reported "does not mean that the relevant problems have been properly solved", the upstream news reporter conducted an investigation. On April 20, with Tongfang HowNet as the keyword, the reporter searched 35 "civil ruling of first instance on disputes over computer software copyright use license contract" related to 22 universities on the judgment document network. The plaintiff of the ruling is Tongfang HowNet Digital Publishing Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Tongfang HowNet), and the time of prosecution and withdrawal is in the second half of 2021. Tianyancha app information shows that Tongfang Zhiwang (Beijing) Technology Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of Tongfang Zhiwang and China Zhiwang, is an affiliated company in terms of ownership structure and actual controller. Nie Weichang, a practicing lawyer in Chongqing, told the upstream news reporter: "in the contract dispute, the plaintiff voluntarily withdrew the lawsuit, which may be either the plaintiff's own unilateral decision to withdraw the lawsuit, or the plaintiff withdrew the lawsuit after the plaintiff and the defendant reached a settlement. These 35 cases all decided to withdraw the lawsuit unilaterally, and it is possible that the two sides of some cases have reached a settlement." So why should HowNet Sue these universities? For the 22 colleges and universities in the 35 decisions that have been made public, the upstream news reporter noted that Beibu Gulf University has been prosecuted the most, with 10 cases. Tianyancha app shows that in June 2020 and April 2021, Beibu Gulf University purchased the services of tongfangzhiwang affiliated companies, and the total price of the two contracts was 1.39 million yuan. However, on July 8, 2021, Beibu Gulf University publicized the procurement list of library database electronic resources in 2021, which purchased 13 services with a budget of 861443. The contract was signed on October 19, and the winning company had nothing to do with Tongfang HowNet. On September 3, 2021, during the bidding period, Tongfang HowNet sued Beibu Gulf University. The judgment document of Beijing Intellectual Property Court [(2021) Jing 73 min Chu No. 1105] states: "the plaintiff tongfangzhiwang Digital Publishing Technology Co., Ltd. filed a lawsuit with the defendant Beibu Gulf University for the dispute over the computer software copyright use license contract, and the court filed a case on September 3, 2021." Upstream news reporters saw that there were 9 case numbers with the same prosecution content. On December 4, 2021, the court allowed the plaintiffs in these 10 cases to withdraw the lawsuit on the ground that "further evidence collection is required". On April 18, the upstream news reporter called Mr. Huang, the party in charge of procurement at Beibu Gulf University. After listening to the reporter's question, Mr. Huang declined the interview on the grounds of "unclear situation". Before and after withdrawing the case of 22 universities, 11 of them won the procurement contract Upstream news reporters found that among the 22 colleges and universities sued by Tongfang HowNet, Tongfang HowNet affiliated companies won the purchase contracts of 11 colleges and universities, with a total amount of 6.3695 million yuan. Judging from the court's acceptance time, the 11 colleges and universities were sued from September to November 2021, and the lawsuit was withdrawn in December 2021. Five known Hunan Institute of engineering, Xihua University, Longdong University, Hezhou University and Hebei University of science and technology won the bid in June and July 2021, and the remaining six known won the bid in a large time span. Hunan University of technology on September 16, 2021, Chongqing University of Arts and Sciences on November 2021, Xiangnan University on December 18, 2021, Jiangsu University of technology on February 25, 2022, Hanshan Normal University on March 30, 2022 and Lanzhou City University on April 20, 2022. From the time line, before the court allowed the withdrawal of the lawsuit, Tongfang Zhiwang affiliated companies won the bid of 8 universities and 3 after the withdrawal of the lawsuit. It is worth noting that in the winning contract, Chongqing University of Arts and Sciences has the highest amount of 916000 yuan, but the contract period is two years. The purchase contract of Chongqing Academy of music was "November 31, 2018, with the purchase amount of" January 31, 2018 "and the use period of" January 25, 2018 ", indicating that the purchase contract of Chongqing Academy of music" was "January 31, 2018", and the use period of "Zhiyan" was "January 31, 2018". At the end of 2018, Tongfang HowNet's competitors appeared. Tianyancha app shows that on December 4, 2018, Beijing Morningstar venture capital technology Co., Ltd. won the bid for the "Book Digital Resources" project of Chongqing University of Arts and Sciences, with a total amount of 1.9677 million yuan and a contract period of "January 1, 2019 - December 31, 2021". Before the contract expires at the end of 2021, Tongfang Zhiwang will sue Chongqing University of Arts and Sciences to the court. According to the civil judgment document, the Beijing Intellectual Property Court filed a case on November 10, 2021 and allowed it to withdraw the lawsuit on December 24. Lawyer Nie Weichang told the upstream news reporter: "at present, the court can file a case on the day when the plaintiff submits the complaint. Specifically, in this case, due to the unclear situation of the case, the filing time shown in the judgment document is November 10, 2021, which does not rule out the time when the plaintiff submits the complaint." In November 2021, tongfangzhiwang affiliated company won the procurement contract of Chongqing University of Arts and Sciences. The contract states that the signing time is "November 2021", the project name is "Chinese Journal and full-text database", the purchase amount is 916000 yuan, and the service life is "2022.1.1-2023.12.31". On April 18, the upstream news reporter called the relevant procurement staff of Chongqing University of Arts and Sciences. He said: "the procurement matters are put forward by the teachers, and then the procurement will be made public after being evaluated according to the work flow of the University." The staff member said that he was "unaware" of the fact that Tongfang HowNet sued the college and withdrew the lawsuit. Tongfang HowNet sued 22 colleges and universities nationwide and won the bid (data source: judgment document network and local government procurement network platform of colleges and universities) Legal expert: it is difficult to identify the influence of litigation on Bidding Upstream news reporters noted that the 22 colleges and universities sued by Tongfang HowNet were "disputes over computer software copyright use license contracts". What is computer software copyright license? Mr. Wang, a citizen of Chongqing, is a network administrator of a large enterprise. He said: "in short, HowNet installs relevant software on the customer's computer to access the database. HowNet provides an account and authorized password, confirms the IP range, opens network services, and users log in and use with the account and authorized password. In the follow-up, the service data is generally updated on time." Taking a series of prosecution cases of HowNet as an example, Mr. Wang explained: "that is to say, the installation and use of computer application software accessing the 'HowNet' database involves similar software license and service agreement, and the legitimate software can be used normally after the installation and authorization term of use." Why does the use of licensed software cause contract disputes? April 18, A legal researcher who asked not to be named told reporters: "in practice, computer software and the Internet often have many users, and the industry characteristics determine that their business model is to formulate a unified format contract in advance by the software copyright owner and Internet service provider. Specifically, in this case, according to the written expression of the software copyright specified in the contract, the software license and service agreement should be displayed on the installation software interface The specific content is determined. The content constitutes an offer on the contract. It is a trading practice in the Internet industry to accept by clicking on the consent behavior. For example, HowNet provides data services to colleges and universities through the developed software. After the service is terminated, users need to pay consideration to the software copyright owner for using the software. There are also corresponding provisions in the terms of the expiration of the procurement HowNet contract. " The freezing point weekly of China Youth Daily reported on February 9 that "when replying to netizens' messages on December 23, 2021, the State Administration of market supervision and Administration said that it would verify and study whether China HowNet is suspected of monopoly. Yuan Ye, a lecturer at the school of law of Central South University for nationalities and an antitrust law researcher, said that the antitrust law does not oppose this kind of (" large and comprehensive "database) structural monopoly, On the contrary, its behavior has caused the effect of excluding and restricting competition. " Is Tongfang HowNet suspected of using software copyright contract disputes to crowd out competitors and monopolize the market? The above legal experts believe that: "The relevant laws stipulate the standard terms for software installation. The provider shall formulate the contract terms according to the principle of fairness. This principle is to restrict the standard contract in the form of monopoly. The software provider is in a monopoly position relative to the user, and the user can install the software only with the consent of the user. The software provider is given priority. In the standard contract, the software provider will agree as much as possible on the responsibilities it may bear Exemption, which also exists in a large number of standard contracts in other industries. Because the specific situation is not clear, the withdrawal of litigation by Tongfang HowNet can not be linked with bidding and winning the bid. If it is determined that Tongfang HowNet is crowding out competitors to monopolize the market, it is obviously inconsistent with the facts and unfair. " (Xinhua News Agency)

Edit：Li Ling Responsible editor：Chen Jie

Source：CQCB

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