Abstract:

Although the development of computer network supplies people with more information and more efficient contacting, an increasing number of online infringement cases bring forward a series of new questions for China' s traditional justice system, in which the civil jurisdiction of network infringement cases is one of the outstanding problems. According to China' s current laws, the lawsuit over infringement action (including generic infringement cases and network infringement cases) only falls within the jurisdiction of infringement location courts or defendant domicile courts. But, in real life, network infringement disputes reflect a unique phenomenon that is different from that of other infringement disputes, that is, the plaintiffs suffering from network infringement being so difficult to determine the domiciles of online infringement defendants and the specific infringement locations that they are in the dilemma of prosecution. This essay holds that it is necessary to sort out, by way of the features of computer network, the related theories both at home and abroad, whether traditional or new, especially America' s theory of the "longarm jurisdiction" . And the people' s court located in the domicile of plaintiffs should become one of the courts falling within jurisdiction of network infringement, which can give the plaintiff a greater right to choose the jurisdiction of the courts so as to solve effectively the problem of the "difficulty to the plaintiff' s prosecution" in judicial practice.

Key words: network infringement; jurisdiction of the court; domicile of defendant; location of infringement; domicile of plaintiff