著作權侵權訴訟之權利懈怠抗辯──以美國案例法為中心

The Study on the Defense of Laches in Copyright Infringement Claims─Based on the US Case Law

本文擬介紹國人並不熟悉，是由美國案例法發展而成之權利懈怠原則（the doctrine of laches）。立基於「法律不保護權利上的睡眠者」法理，權利懈怠原則係指權利人不合理延遲訴訟的行為，造成侵權人的利益受損時，侵權人得主張權利懈怠抗辯，拒絕權利人侵權賠償等法律救濟。針對權利人延遲訴訟的問題，德國透過法官造法創設權利失效原則，美國案例法則發展權利懈怠原則加以因應，兩者為概念相近又不全然相同的法律原則，更精確地說，權利失效原則可視為權利懈怠原則與禁反言原則的綜合體，但權利懈怠原則與禁反言原則在權利屬性與法律效果上又有所差異，美國案例法將其各自發展成兩理論成熟的法律原則的作法，某種程度可避免適用上矛盾的可能困擾。
我國為大陸法系國家，在傳統司法實務上多依循德國採用權利失效原則，目前在著作權侵權案件中尚無法院引用權利失效原則，更遑論權利懈怠原則。有鑑於著作權屬於智慧財產權之一環，其規模經濟的無體財產特色明顯與傳統民法保護個人財產的規範目的有異。又美國在全球智財權產業經濟居領先地位，我國除著作權法內容與實務深受美國法制的影響，美國法院針對著作權新興議題所發表的法律見解更是動見觀瞻，亦受到我司法實務及學界的高度關注。迄今，美國法院使用權利懈怠原則處理的著作權案件不勝枚舉，已累積許多豐富、成熟的理論，在此情形下，在我著作權實務尚無權利失效原則先例的情況下，法院未來在審理相關案件時，與其自己重新摸索具著作權特色的權利失效原則內涵，建議可適度參考美國權利懈怠原則的精神內涵，興許有助於判決結果更能真實反映現時的國際發展趨勢。因此，本文嘗試透過權利懈怠理論的發展脈絡、我國案例適用可能性的研析、及如何導入我著作權實務的可能作法等議題的討論，希冀能借鏡美國經驗，探究權利失效原則外的另一新的法律視野，提供我國法院參考選擇。

The desire of this article is to introduce the doctrine of laches developed by the US case law. Based on the maxim that“equity aids the vigilant, not those who sleep on their rights”, the equitable doctrine of laches is applied by a court to bar a suit with the unreasonable delay by the plaintiff which caused unjust prejudice to the defendant.
In order to avoid the unreasonable delay by the plaintiff in filing suit, German courts created a doctrine of“Verwirkung”to deal with this issue, and the doctrine of laches is applied by US courts to bar an infringement claim from the lazy right owner. Although laches and Verwirkung are related concepts, there is a clear distinction between the two. Verwirkung can be viewed as the combination of laches and estoppel, but the two defenses are separately invoked by the US case law.
Following German cases, Verwirkung has been often used as a defense by the defendant in cases related to the context of traditional civil law in Taiwan, but not copyright cases. As a kind of intelligent property rights, copyright protection is very different from the protection of personal properties under civil law. The fact that America’s global leadership in the IPR industries makes the content of its copyright law is adopted in much of the world, including Taiwan. Many important legal doctrines (e.g., transformative use) are also well referenced by the court in Taiwan. Moreover, the US courts have had plenty of experiences of the cases with the defense of laches. Apart from Verwirkung, this article, in the context of copyright, tries to explore whether the doctrine of laches could be a possible option for the court in Taiwan to offer the defendant another way to protect himself by learning from the US experiences.