Successful Legal Action for Infringement of Copyright (Medeli)

[pjd]

Thought this might be of interest --

"Yamaha Corporation (hereinafter "Yamaha") is pleased to announce that our legal action against Medeli Electronics Co., Ltd (得理電子有限公司, hereinafter "Medeli" or "Defendant" *1) at the court in Hong Kong for infringement of copyright in Yamaha's music data for automatic accompaniment (hereinafter "Style Data" *2) is successfully drawn to a conclusion as follows.

In March 2020, Yamaha commenced the legal proceedings against Medeli in the High Court of Hong Kong for copyright infringement, alleging that Defendant copied, without Yamaha's authorization, multiple numbers of Yamaha's Style Data (which had been preset in 46 models of Yamaha's portable keyboards and digital pianos) and installed them into Defendant's electronic musical instruments, manufacturing and selling the same under the MEDELI brand. Whilst the Court granted the judgment in favor of Yamaha in January 2022, now that the Defendant has paid to Yamaha USD850,000 for damages and legal costs, the proceeding is drawn to a conclusion."

More here:
https://www.yamaha.com/en/news_release/2023/23101001/

[BogdanH]

It is of interest for sure! Thanks for sharing.

Bogdan

[Lefty]

I had one of these akx10 keyboards.  They are great quality, and very cost-effective compared to my SX900.  I only paid $700 US$ for mine.  Very comparable to the SX900, but a better screen and interface.  It really looks like a clone of the SX900.  The SX900 sounds a little bit better to my ears tho...

"2. Highlights of the Judgment
to cease any use of Yamaha's Style Data without authorization and destroy any remaining copies
to cease offering, recall and destroy the products to which the Style Data is installed"

I wonder what this judgement will mean to current owners?

[mixermixer]

Am I reading this right that theoretically it would have been possible to load a Yamaha style file into a Medeli keyboard?

[mikf]

I wonder what this judgement will mean to current owners?

Reading the judgement it would seem that there is no liability on the buyer, but Medeli is obliged to both cease selling the keyboard, and to recall existing keyboards which contain these Yamaha styles Not sure that would really happen though. It would be almost impossible to enforce.
Mike

[DerekA]

I'm surprised it was just the styles ... the whole thing looked like it was copied from Yamaha !!

[mikf]

Derek
You can copy anything in a product - what matters legally is only whether it infringes patents or copyright. In this case it is about the copyright on these styles. It's possible Yamaha also thinks they infringe other things, but this was the case they chose to take.
Mike