The law does not protect people who sleep on their rights - the statute of limitations

Author | Lawyer Li Yongzeng

case review

Company A is a high-end wedding company. Around October 2017, Company A uploaded some stills of the hit drama that year on its WeChat official account, and planned a classical wedding on the theme according to the scene of the drama for public promotion. Company B, the producer of the drama, filed a lawsuit in court for Company A's infringement of its intellectual property rights, demanding that Company A stop the infringement, delete the copy, publish an apology in the local media, and compensate hundreds of thousands of yuan for economic losses.

Case handling

After accepting the commission of Company A, we retrieved the evidence materials submitted by Company B from the court under suit. We found that the notarial certificate of infringement evidence submitted by Company B was signed in 10 copies in 2019, and the time of signing in the complaint was November 2021. However, the people's court received the filing materials and the response materials served to Company A in January 2023.

According to this situation, we have developed two litigation response plans. First, Company A's factual recognition of the infringement of Company B's copyright, the article was read less often, did not cause major dissemination, and did not bring economic benefits to Company A due to the article, did not cause losses to Company B, and the infringement was not slightly harmful. Second, Company A's infringement occurred in 2017, and by the end of 2019, Company A no longer operated the WeChat official account, and the WeChat official account has been cancelled.

Company B will not sue the court until 2023 to claim its rights. The case has exceeded the statute of limitations, and the defendant's claim should not be supported by the court.

Afterwards, we submitted our agency plan to the court and communicated with the agent of Company B. Finally, Company B voluntarily withdrew the lawsuit. The case was closed with Company B withdrawing the lawsuit, and Company A was not liable for tort compensation.

Lawyer comments and suggestions

The main reason why Company B withdrew the lawsuit in this case is that the statute of limitations has indeed exceeded. Even if the lawsuit is not withdrawn, it cannot change the consequences of the court dismissing its claim beyond the statute of limitations.

Limitation of action refers to the legal system in which the right holder does not exercise his rights within the statutory period and loses his request to the people's court to protect his civil rights according to law. That is to say, the law only protects the civil subject's right to win the case during the validity period of the statute of limitations, and exceeding the statute of limitations may bring the risk of losing the case.

For details, see Article 188 of the Civil Code of the People's Republic of China, which stipulates that the limitation period for applying to the people's court for protection of civil rights is three years. Where the law provides otherwise, follow its provisions. The limitation period is calculated from the date when the right holder knows or should have known that the right has been damaged and the obligor.

Article 192: Where the limitation period expires, the obligor may raise a defense of non-performance.

Lawyer advice

When one's own legitimate rights and interests are damaged, they should promptly claim their rights to the other party, such as directly serving the claim document to the other party, filing a lawsuit, applying for arbitration, etc., especially when claiming their rights to the other party, they should properly preserve the relevant evidence of the claim, prevent the loss of the right to win because the claim rights exceed the statute of limitations, exercise their rights in a timely manner, and do not sleep on their rights. The law does not protect those who sleep on their rights.

Lawyer Profile

Lawyer Li Yongzeng

Zhiheng Jinan Law Firm full-time lawyer

He has a professional education background in management economics and law, and has been mainly engaged in civil and commercial affairs since his practice. His business scope focuses on corporate disputes, internal corporate governance, commercial contract disputes, creditor's rights and debts, financial leasing and other civil and commercial affairs.

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