上海作家棉棉近期对谷歌提起诉讼，称谷歌未经授权扫描其作品《盐酸情人》中的部分内容，并将其上传到谷歌的“图书搜索”中，侵犯了其著作权，要求谷歌公开道歉并赔偿约8800美元。此案由北京市海淀区人民法院审理。棉棉聘请了北京盈科律师事务所律师孙景伟做为代理律师。

Shanghai author Mian Mian has accused Google China of copyright infringement and has filed a lawsuit after Google scanned one of her books into its library.  Beijing’s Yingke Law Firm has been instructed on the matter, with the author seeking damages of US$8,950 and a public apology from the search giant.

Filed last October and heard at the Haidian District Court in Beijing, Mian’s suit is the first civil lawsuit against the technology provider in China over the scanning of books into its web library. “Mian is the first Chinese writer who accuses Google of copyright in the name of herself, and the case could encourage more Chinese writers to get involved in copyright protection,” said Sun Jingwei, a partner at Yingke.

The matter comes months after China Written Works Copyright Society called out to Chinese writers to stand up against Google’s digital library proposal. Earlier in France, a court ordered Google to pay US$430,000 to French publisher La Martinjere and to remove online extracts to books, a ruling that could set a precedent dealing a blow to Google’s digitising endeavours.

In 2005, a copyright infringement suit was also filed against Google by US authors and publishers. Settlement was reached last year in which Google agreed to pay US$125m to resolve the claims.

US firm WilmerHale has been Google’s long-term legal advisor, although who is advising Google on the latest case has not been disclosed. The firm followed its client into China to better provide on-ground legal advice regarding the search giant’s business there.

Founded in 2001, Beijing’s Yingke has 317 lawyers working across seven offices in China. A settlement for their client in the matter is said to be in order.