GeneNet "borrows" the name of the forensic laboratory to attract customers
□ Our reporter Xu Weilun
□ Bai Chuxuan, a trainee reporter of this newspaper
□ Our correspondent Liu Jinning
Searching for the word "paternity test" on the Internet, you will see a large number of advertisements of test institutions, and some websites provide the yellow pages service of paternity test institutions.
However, it is often difficult to distinguish the qualifications of these institutions. Consumers have taken a fancy to a certain institution on the Yellow Pages website, and they may be "civet cats for princes" in actual consultation.
Recently, Beijing No. 4 Intermediate People's Court heard such a case. A gene network used the information of a forensic laboratory to solicit business and was sentenced to 100,000 yuan in compensation and apologized.
A judicial appraisal institute is a forensic appraisal institution with relevant qualifications. In May 2020, it received calls from the masses one after another, asking whether it had changed the address of the institution, and the masses questioned why they were looking for its appraisal, but the report was issued by other organisations.
A forensic identification institute conducted a query on the situation reported by the public, and found that searching for its name through the Internet, clicking on the relevant entry will directly enter a gene network.
Afterwards, a forensic identification institute arranged for its staff to click on "reservation test" from the information page of the forensic identification institute mounted on GeneNet to enter the chat interface with "Assessment Center - Forensic Zhang".
However, "Zhang Forensic Doctor" is neither a real forensic doctor nor an employee of a forensic laboratory, but a customer service employee of a gene network.
Under the guidance of "Forensic Doctor Zhang", Wang came to a medical university appraisal company located in Chaoyang District, Beijing to complete the relevant paternity test procedures. However, a medical university appraisal company has nothing to do with a forensic laboratory.
A forensic institute believed that a gene network sold testing services in its name without permission, infringing its name right, so it sued a gene network to the court, asking it to stop the infringement and apologize and compensate for the losses.
The court found that a certain gene network is a yellow pages website that provides a search function for genetic identification institutions. Entering the website search can see the introduction and contact information of a number of genetic testing institutions, including a judicial identification institute.
The relevant webpage also shows that the forensic laboratory can be booked for a test starting from 2,739 yuan. In June 2020, the number of appointments displayed on the webpage was 267, and it had risen to 2,563 in November.
In fact, the forensic institute never authorized the gene network to put its information on the website.
A gene website argued that the number of reservations displayed on the website was only the number of views and clicks, not the real transaction volume, and that the information of a judicial laboratory was only for the convenience of customers' inquiries, not to attract customers in its name, but also to help. A forensic laboratory advertised for free.
At the same time, he said that since the establishment of the website, it has only cooperated with a medical university appraisal company, but only for promotion, and no fees have been collected. At present, the appraisal company has also closed down.
In the first instance, the court found that a gene network had infringed on the name right of a forensic laboratory, and imposed a compensation of 100,000 yuan and made an apology.
A genetic website refused to accept the judgment amount and filed an appeal.
Recently, the Fourth Intermediate People's Court of Beijing conducted the second instance of the case.
During the second trial, the agent of a certain gene network proposed that the amount of compensation determined in the first trial was too high, and the number of reservations it referred to was actually the number of views and clicks, not the actual number of reservations; even if the number of reservations mentioned above is real, it cannot be equivalent Regarding the actual transaction volume, the actual transaction volume needs to be determined by the number of contracts signed and payments made.
In this regard, a forensic identification institute stated that a certain gene network does not have relevant qualifications, and its cooperative unit has closed down.
On the page of the gene website about a forensic institute, you can see that there are 58 people's comments, so it can be inferred that at least 58 people have made transactions. According to the price of 2,739 yuan for the displayed service, this part of the transaction has reached more than 100,000 yuan. .
The Beijing Fourth Intermediate People's Court dismissed the appeal after hearing the case and upheld the original judgment.
Paternity testing should seek compliance testing agencies
After the court, the judge stated that legal persons and unincorporated organizations enjoy rights such as the right to name, reputation, and honor, and legal persons and unincorporated organizations have the right to decide, use, and change their names in accordance with the law, and exclude others from interfering, embezzling, or fraudulently using them.
In this case, a gene network used the name of a forensic laboratory for commercial promotion without permission, which had the effect of making people mistakenly believe that the genetic testing service of the genetic laboratory could be booked through the gene website, and attracted customers for a gene network. Certain economic interests have come, which infringed the other party's right to name and also constituted unfair competition.
In addition, in practice, in order to attract customers, some appraisal agencies have accurately captured the customer's desire to protect their privacy, claiming that they can test without the need to be present in person, without the need to provide documents, or by mail.
However, this identification method does not comply with the regulations, and the identification results have no legal effect, and cannot be used for legal purposes such as settlement, relocation, birth certificate, notarization, immigration, schooling, adoption, and litigation.
In this case, regarding the reasons for the judgment, the court pointed out in the judgment that legal persons have the right to name according to law.
Without the permission of a judicial appraisal office, a gene network set up the other party's business column information on its own website, and at the same time carried out consulting services of a peer-to-peer nature, so as to obtain benefits, which not only seriously damaged the name of the appellee At the same time, it also misleads consumers and disrupts the normal market operation order to a certain extent.
The judge reminded that parties who need paternity identification should choose an identification agency that has a forensic identification license, qualifications for "forensic material evidence identification", measurement certification, independent laboratories, and identification steps, time, and methods that comply with the normative documents of the Ministry of Justice. Select by logging on to the official website of the local judicial bureau to check the list of registered judicial authentication institutions.
For those institutions that claim to be anonymous and receive the results within a few hours, the parties must choose carefully.