Spencer Johnson, MD, the American author of the best selling book, Who Moved My Cheese?, has entrusted the south China-based Nanhai Press, the publisher of the Chinese version of his other bestseller, One Minute for Yourself, to file a suit against publishers faking books under his name in China.
"We have already finished collecting evidence and will meet the Yanbian People's Press and other offenders in court very soon," said a staff member of the Hainan Province-based Nanhai Press entrusted by Spencer Johnson to act for him in an impending lawsuit.
On July 1 piles of books falsely given the name of Spencer Johnson were removed from shelves of the Beijing Book Mansion, Asia's largest book-retailing outlet, to make way for copies of One Minute for Yourself, the "authentic" brand-new book by Johnson.
Numerous counterfeit books under the name of Spencer Johnson, for one, Yourself in One Minute published under the name of the Yanbian People's Press, mushroomed in China's book market following the "cheese fever" evoked by the publication of the Chinese version of Who Moved My Cheese? in China in September 2001.
The Nanhai Press had obtained the exclusive copyright of the Chinese version of One Minute for Yourself on China's mainland; Spencer Johnson had confirmed that all the so-called "One Minute Series" books in the Chinese book market, except the endorsed One Minute for Yourself, were false and that he had officially entrusted the Nanhai Press to launch litigation against the violating presses and book dealers, with the Yanbian People's Press based in Yanbian City, Jilin Province, northeast China, as the chief offender, according to Jun Cunxu, the attorney hired by the Nanhai Press for the case.
The suit will be lengthy and arduous because it is an international one. And the large number of violating parties as well as their long history of copyright infringement of Spencer Johnson's "One Minute Series" dates back to May, 2002 also adds complexity to the dispute, said Attorney Jun.
Meanwhile, the distribution department of Yanbian People's Press, reached by telephone, denied that their company had published such a book titled Yourself in One Minute.
"We have been engaged in the business of textbooks and students' studying materials over a long period of time and seldom publish books on social topics," they said, but refused to explain why fake books bearing their company name can be seen at all major bookstores across the country, the name being stolen by a third party.
One Minute for Yourself is another excellent book by Spencer Johnson after Who Moved My Cheese?. The "One Minute Therapy" proposed by him in the book serves for good balm for the modern man and woman with tough career pressure. Spencer Johnson's best selling "One Minute Series" also includes The One Minute Manager and The One Minute Father and other books, which are not yet available in China. The icon of "01" is a trademark owned by Spencer Johnson for his books, which can also be found on the Chinese versions of his books, according to sources with the Nanhai Press.
(Beijing Entertainment Times, translated for China.org.cn by Chen Chao, July 11, 2003)
