When Open‑Source Licenses Fail: What China’s Supreme Court Ruling Means for Developers

Case Overview

Employees of Suzhou Network Technology Co., Ltd. left the company with source code derived from the open‑source OpenWRT system (licensed under GPL‑v2) and joined Zhejiang Telecom Technology Co., creating a new gateway product whose code was found to be more than 90% identical to the original.

Legal Dispute

Suzhou sued Zhejiang and the former employees for copyright infringement. Zhejiang defended itself by invoking the GPL‑v2 license, arguing that the alleged infringing software was a permissible derivative. The intermediate court rejected this defense, finding that the copying, modification, and distribution of Suzhou’s proprietary code without permission constituted infringement.

Supreme Court Ruling

The Supreme People’s Court’s Intellectual Property Tribunal issued a landmark judgment that separates two legal questions: (1) whether a developer has violated the GPL‑v2 license, and (2) whether the developer retains copyright protection for the original work. The court held that a breach of the GPL does not automatically forfeit the developer’s copyright, and that infringement must be assessed independently of license compliance.

Key Findings

The “OfficeTen” gateway software, built on OpenWRT, is recognized as a copyrighted work with independent originality.

The court affirmed that the GPL‑v2 license does not turn the derivative software into a public‑domain work; the original author’s rights remain enforceable.

Both copying and distribution of the source code without Suzhou’s consent were deemed infringing actions.

The decision emphasizes a balanced approach: protecting open‑source community development while safeguarding developers’ proprietary rights.

Implications for Developers

The ruling provides clear guidance for future open‑source‑related disputes in China: developers must respect both copyright law and license terms, and a violation of an open‑source license does not automatically shield them from infringement liability. The case is hailed as a milestone that strengthens legal certainty for software companies, especially small and medium‑sized enterprises, and confirms the legal force of GPL‑v2 in Chinese courts.