Copyright Laws of China

People’s Republic of China has been protecting the Intellectual Property Rights since the year 1979. There has been Government Legislations, Administrative regulation to protect the Intellectual Property, thus rules regarding copyright, patent, trademark has come into action. The legal framework developed has been protecting both domestic and international intellectual property.

Copyright Law of PRC has been adopted in the year 1990 and amendments were done in the year 2001. Each state has copyright administration department who are responsible for the nationwide administration of copyright.

The general provisions of the law states that the work of any Chinese citizen, institution or any other legal entities will enjoy the copyright on their published and unpublished works. The work of foreign citizens will be protected under an International treaty which is a contract between China and the country where the foreigner belongs to. The term “works” has been defined in the law to avoid inconvenience. In a broader sense the term “works” include literature, science, art, and engineering. The term ‘works’ has been defined as ‘written and oral works’, ‘musical. dramatic, quyi’, choreographic and acrobatic works’,’ fine arts and architecture’, ‘photographic works’ ‘cinematographic works’ sketches, graphics, engineering designs’, ‘computer software’ etc. The law is not applicable to calendar, numerical tables, formulas, news on current affairs, laws, regulations, decisions, decisions of state organs etc.

The copyright owner enjoys several rights including the right of publication, right to mention the name in the work, right to alter the work, right to protect the work against distortion or mutilation, right to reproduce copies of the work, right to distribute, rent, and exhibit the work.

Anyone who involves in the act of infringement shall have to bear civil liability if the person is found responsible for publishing a copyrighted work without the permission of the author, publishing a joint work as solely created by oneself, distorting, mutilating plagiarizing, exploiting, broadcasting the work without the permission of the author. The infringer has to compensate for the loss of the copyright owner. The owner if not satisfied with the administrative penalty can apply to the people’s court within 3 months of receiving the written decision on penalty.

The copyright owner may apply to the people’s court against the infringer with evidence for legal proceedings. The people’s court has to make the decisions within 48 hours of the application. Regulation on protection software is dealt separately by the State Council.

Even though implementation of laws regarding Intellectual Property Right is difficult in China due to lack of education but even then the State councils have been successful in preventing infringement to a certain level.