No discount in IPR protection, copyright watchdog

Though long and arduous the process might be, China will not make any discount on the principles and goals on its IPR Protection, said Yan Xiaohong, deputy chief of the National Copyright Administration of China at a seminar on encouraging self-innovation and advocating the use of authentic software.

If we do not protect IPR, we could not realize the goal of building an innovation-oriented nation. China will continue to improve legislation and law enforcement in IPR protection to create a sound market environment for enterprises, said Yan.

More than 40 representatives from foreign and domestic PC and software manufactures including Microsoft and Lenovo attended the seminar.

Over the two years, Chinese government has done a lot of work in IPR protection. Generally speaking, China has achieved some progress, but meanwhile, it has to realize that IPR protection is a protracted and arduous task, it is impossible for China to establish a complete IPR protection mechanism in one day, we must make unswervingly efforts based on China's real situation, said Yan.

It is an important move that China has made in promoting authorized software and curbing piracy, said representatives when discussing the notice on Pre-installed Authorized Operating System, issued by Ministry of Information Industry, National Copyrights Administration and Ministry of Commerce on April 6, which orders all computers produced and sold in China to be pre-installed with authentic operating system before going out of the factory.

As a hardware manufacturer, we are in great favor of copyrighted software, though installing authorized software could increase cost, software could have added values on hardware, plenty of software products could also make hardware more competitive, said Li Jianhang, vice president of Tsinghua Tongfang Co. Ltd.

Using legitimate software is not only enterprises' responsibility, but also the need to protect their own interests, said a TCL representative.

If there is no IPR protection, there is no initiative for independent creation, said a Dell (China) representative, who also suggests China make more efforts in IPR protection and publicity.

Bai Huimin, vice president of Lenovo, said that China sells 18 to 20 million PCs each year, 70 percent of them are famous brands, if authorized system could be installed, pirated ones will be effectively contained.

A representative from Beijing Hailong Company suggests that Microsoft should slash the price of its software according to China's situation. He said If Microsoft's Windows system could be reduced to 100 to 15 yuan, more than 50 percent of Chinese consumers would like to buy the copyrighted ones.

According to report, licensed software is being used in all government departments and the Chinese copyright watchdog is also making efforts to promote the use of authentic software in enterprises.

By People's Daily Online