WIPO treaties

China's top legislature considered signing two treaties with the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), a UN agency, in a bid to fight against piracy in virtual space.

The two treaties, the WIPO Copyright Treaty and WIPO Performances and Phonograms Treaty, were submitted to the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress.

"To join the treaties could enable us to improve our own Internet copyright protection campaign by adopting advanced international experience," says Long Xinmin, director of the National Copyright Administration.

"It will also show China's positive attitude in establishing the world network new order," he says.

With 123 million Internet users as of June 2006, China has become the world's second largest country both in terms of Internet users and the number of computers connecting to the net.

China amended the Copyright Law in 2001, adding some rules from the two treaties. In May 2006, the State Council issued a regulation on protecting the right to spread information on the Internet, setting a legal framework for adopting the treaties.

WIPO passed the two treaties in December 1996. The WIPO Copyright Treaty and WIPO Performances and Phonograms Treaty took effect on March 6, 2002 and May 20, 2002, respectively. About 59 countries ratified the two treaties as of May 2006.

Karaoke Clubs charged

Karaoke bars in China were charged for using music videos from January 1, according to the China Audio and Video Association (CAVA).

Wang Huapeng, an official with the China Audio-Video Management Collective (CAVMC) says a dozen heads of its provincial branch offices attended an internal meeting held by CAVA, agreeing to the start of royalties collection January 1.

The royalties collection were directly implemented in well-off cities. In less developed regions, local offices of CAVA will investigate and set "reasonable payment rates," Wang says.

The ceiling rate for each private room in karaoke bars was set at 12 yuan per day by the National Copyright Administration on November 9.

Ten billion yuan in revenues at the 100,000 karaoke bars in China should theoretically generate 8 million yuan in royalties for copyright holders.

Internet piracy

Internet piracy has become an important factor impeding the development of the domestic software industry, and the National Copyright Administration (NCA) has taken combating software piracy as the key issue in intellectual property rights (IPR) protection, says Yan Xiaohong, deputy director of NCA.

Yan says that in recent years, China's software industry has continued to expand. However, some websites upload, copy and distribute software in large amount without authorization, which becomes a serious threat to domestic software enterprises.

Compared with foreign software giants, Internet piracy has greater impact on the domestic software industry. Chinese software enterprises are small-scale, relying on the domestic market, and lack of overseas market support, capital and technology. So if it not controlled, Internet piracy would be a fatal blow to the domestic software industry.

Yan added that in recent years the whole society has gradually grown more aware of the value of software, and software IPR trade has been standardized. NCA will continue to cooperate with relevant departments to further intensify the crackdown on software piracy, improve the efficiency of software registration, reinforce software IPR protection, and create a favourable environment for the healthy development of the software industry.

TV royalties

Chinese TV makers are calling for a united voice in their royalty negotiations with international patent holders for TV sets to be sold in the United States.

Shen Jian, a spokesman for China's second-largest TV maker, Skyworth, said in December that patent holders with the US standard of Advanced Television System Committee (ATSC) asked for more than $20 in royalties on each TV set. Chinese TV manufacturers say that such high royalties would make it impossible for them to break even.

The US Government requires all TV sets and tuning devices sold in its market to include an ATSC tuner. The requirement will go into effect from March 2007, in order to provide time for the industry to adjust before the formal closure of analogue programmes in February 2009.

As the world's largest TV manufacturer, exporting about 50 million sets a year, China might suffer if the royalty claims are too high. The United States and Europe are two of its major export markets.

"If the patent holders ask for $23 per unit, that could be disastrous for everybody," Shen said. An executive with TCL, the third-largest TV producer in terms of sales, says the impact should not be very serious, but that would not come without hard-fought bargains.

According to domestic media reports, the State Intellectual Property Office (SIPO) has a list of digital TV set royalty claims which amounts to $23 per unit, almost three times more than the previous estimate.

Auto domain

According to a survey of domain name application by Chinese enterprises released by China Electronic Commerce Association, more than 72 percent of automobile enterprises are using "cn" domain names.

A large number of enterprises registered the counterpart "cn" domain names of their brands, products, services, and other items, and promoted their domain names in advertisements.

"Cn" domain names include audi.cn, ford.cn and vw.cn. Some enterprises have hundreds of "cn" domain names. Beijing Hyundai has registered 248 "cn" domain names.

(China Daily 01/06/2007 page9)