Yamaha Announces a Favorable Ruling and Settlement in Its Lawsuit in China

Yamaha Announces a Favorable Ruling and Settlement in Its Lawsuit in China

TOKYO, May 8/PRNewswire/ --

Yamaha Corporation (TSE 1st Section:7951, Head Office at Hamamatsu-shi,
Shizuoka; President: Mitsuru Umemura, hereinafter: Yamaha) has announced that
the Company secured a favorable ruling and settlement in its copyright
infringement lawsuit in China. Yamaha brought a lawsuit against Deli
Electronics (Shenzhen) Co., Ltd. (Head Office: Shenzhen, Guangdong), a
Chinese manufacturer of electronic musical instruments, and three other
companies in the Beijing Second Intermediate People's Court in November 2006,
regarding infringement of copyrights on accompaniment style data
(hereinafter, Style Data), created originally by Yamaha and incorporated in
its electronic musical instruments. In December 2007, the Court, after
proceeding with a portion of its deliberations on evidence, issued a judgment
recognizing Yamaha's claims as justifiable as regards the portion covered by
its deliberations. The Court judgment contained the following major points:
(1) Style Data is intellectual property to be protected under copyright laws,
(2) Yamaha holds the copyright to the 26 Style Data that were examined and
deliberated, and (3) The actions of the defendants were violations of
copyrights. Therefore the Court ordered them to stop using the Style Data,
suspend sale of products incorporating the data, pay compensation for damages
to Yamaha, and apologize.

Thereafter, the defendants did not appeal and the Court's judgment was
finalized. Following further deliberations, the Court issued a settlement
proposal to Yamaha and the defendants. A settlement favorable to Yamaha was
reached on April 29.

The Style Data copied by the defendants without authorization was
contained in Yamaha's PSR-640 portable keyboard, originally introduced in
1999 and sold worldwide. The defendants used this Style Data in their
MEDELI-brand electronic musical instruments manufactured and sold in China.
Yamaha, therefore, sued the defendants on the grounds that use of Style Data
was an infringement of its copyrights.

Regarding the Court judgment, Atsushi Muramatsu, General Manager of
Yamaha's Legal & Intellectual Property Division made the following comment:
"The judgment was the world's first affirming that Style Data is intellectual
property to be protected under copyright laws and that unauthorized copying
is a copyright infringement. Yamaha regards this judgment as epoch-making and
will take a resolute stand against such infringements going forward, while
continuing to respect and protect intellectual property."

Contact:
Mr. Misao Tanaka
Public Relations Division
YAMAHA CORPORATION
Tel: +81-3-5488-6601
Fax: +81-3-5488-5060
E-mail address: misao_tanaka@gmx.yamaha.com
17-11, Takanawa 2-chome, Minato-ku
Tokyo 108-8568

www.global.yamaha.com

Web site: http://www.global.yamaha.com

Source: Yamaha Corporation

Mr. Misao Tanaka, Public Relations Division, Yamaha Corporation, +81-3-5488-6601, Fax: +81-3-5488-5060, misao_tanaka@gmx.yamaha.com

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