Because of the You Who Came From The Star, a Korean TV series，Kim Soo Hyun make his own name as a teen idol. Meanwhile, this TV show make its success in China with the 1 billion website clicks and popularity. In the past 20 years, numbers of Korean TV series, such as The Jealousy, The Great Jang-Geum, The Bathhouse People, The heirs, have been exported to China.

All these numbers mark a great success for Korea cultural industry in recent years. Statistics show that the copyright sales of Korean TV series have grown from 8 million US dollars in 2001 to 158 million US dollars in 2011. Korean pop culture once became quite trendy in Asia.

Establishing IPR network

A sound copyright protection environment can facilitate cultural development, no matter in works creation or operaton. To do so, the Korean government has carried out several measures to establish and perfect the system to administrate, license and register copyrights. In July 2011, the Korean government carried out the fundamental law for IPR and set up the National IPR Committee for copyright administration. A system for copyright data collection, analysis has been developed. Meanwhile, the systems for copyright certification, license and registration via Internet have also been built.

Except for law system construction, copyright protection and exchanges make also their own contributions to the growth of oversea sales of Korean cultural products. The Korean government has set up several copyright centers in the destination markets to fight against infringement and privacy, and strengthen copyright exchanges. In China, for instance, together with China's National Copyright Administration, the Korean government has developed a counter-privacy mechanism. As an effort to introduce Korean copyright system and information about Korean cultural products to the oversea customers, and provide legal counsel services to their companies, an oversea copyright information database has been developed. With this database, users can get introductions about copyright information in China, America, and Southeast Asian nations. Also, to promote cultural and copyright exchanges, the Korean government has held numerous theme forums.

Government playing support role

In 1998, the Korean government established their National Cultural Korea strategy, increasing the budgets for cultural industry development, instead of cutting down the financial expenses and receipts. The budgets for cultural industry went up from 3.5% of total to 17.9%. The following years witnessed fast development of Korean cultural industry and the Korean Wave has swept over the Asian countries. Now, the second wave has landed in the Americas and European countries. In 2012, Psy's Gangnam Style has attracted worldwide attention, and it has been listed as the top 2 music on the Billboard.

Compared with the development of Korean cultural industry, there is some way to go for Chinese companies. However, undoubtedly, copyright industry in China is enjoying steady growth and development. Observers suggest that Chinese cultural companies should seize the opportunity and make their own prosperity. 

(China IP News)