According to the China Copyright Protection Center, China's computer software copyright registration came up to 109,342, surpassing 100,000 for the first time, up 33.40% and  over 4.1 times more than 21,495 in 2006.

According to the statistics released by the China Copyright Protection Center, in 2011, the top three regions in software copyright registration were Beijing, Guangdong and Shanghai, accounting for 30,036 (27.47%), 19,572 (17.90%) and 10,181 (9.31%) respectively. Jiangsu and Zhejiang took the fourth and fifth places with 8,719 and 8,522. The top five combined for 77,030, representing over 70% of the nation's total. Among the registrations in the year, 5,447 pieces of gaming software were registered, up106.09%. The top 3 provinces for gaming software registration were Beijing, Guangdong, Shanghai, accounting for 66.84% of the total.

The ever-rising registration indicates that copyright awareness and capability of innovation of Chinese companies have been enhanced. The total sales revenue of online gaming market reached 42.85 billion yuan, up 32.4%, among which, 63.4% were created at home. Moreover, 131 online games developed by 34 Chinese enterprises entered the overseas market and brought home 360 million USD in revenue, up 56.5%.

Several factors contribute to the welcomed trend First, since the the Outline of National Intellectual Property Strategy was implemented, China has stepped up IPR protection, vigorously carry out publicity and education in IPR and strengthen IPR training for enterprises to heighten IPR awareness; Second, with the rapid development of new technology and cultural and creative industry, demand for software increases gradually; Third, the national authorities have issued a series of favorable policies especially in financing and taxation which greatly inspired enterprises's enthusiasm in software copyright registration, according to Li Shunde, the director of in Law and IP Research Institute of China Academy of Social Sciences.

In order to ease small and micro enterprises' burden and promote the enterprises to develop healthily, the Ministry of Finance and the National Development and Reform Commission jointly issued the Notice of Exemption of Administrative and Institutional Fees for Small and Micro Enterprises. According to the notice, during the period time from January 1, 2012 to December 31,2014, temporary exemption of eight registration fees are applied to small and micro enterprises.

(China IP News)