backBrazil’s Federal Regional Court of the 1st Region (TRF-1), through its Fifth Panel, has unanimously upheld the conviction of a publishing house for plagiarism and counterfeiting of technical manuals produced by the Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation (Embrapa). The court held that the literal and unauthorised reproduction of excerpts from technical and scientific works, without proper attribution, constitutes copyright infringement, even where the content is of a technical nature. The panel dismissed the publisher’s appeals and fully confirmed the first-instance judgment.
The lawsuit was brought by Embrapa after identifying verbatim excerpts reproduced in three books commercially distributed by the publisher, without authorisation or acknowledgment of authorship. The trial court found the infringement and ordered the company to pay compensation for material and moral damages, as well as to publicly recognise the ownership of the works, cease further publication of the books and pay attorneys’ fees. The publisher argued, among other points, the absence of bad faith and claimed that the content was part of general technical knowledge, arguments that were rejected by the court.
In delivering the opinion, Federal Judge Shamyl Cipriano, sitting by designation, noted that a comparison of the texts revealed substantial identity between the works, ruling out any claim of lawful use or mere inspiration. He emphasised that Brazil’s Copyright Act affords protection to both private and public legal entities and that violations of moral rights give rise to presumed damage, in line with the Superior Court of Justice’s case law. The judge concluded that the damages awarded were appropriate and consistent with the principles of proportionality and reasonableness.
Link to the Court Decision 00241077920104013400_444261853_Acórdão.pdf
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