The National Copyright Administration of the People’s Republic of China (National Copyright Administration of the People's Republic of China — NCAC) published data earlier this month on applications filed last year.

In 2019, the number of copyright registrations increased by 21% compared with the previous year, while the total number of registrations reached 4,186,549, compared with 3,457,338 in 2018.

The most popular type of work subject to registration was software, with a total of 1,484,448 registrations in 2019. This accounted for 35% of the total number of copyright registrations. Compared with the previous year, the number of software registrations increased by 34.36%.

More than 70% of software registrations were concentrated in Beijing and on China’s eastern coast, where a number of high-tech companies are located, particularly in Guangdong, Jiangsu and Shanghai.

One of the main reasons for this growth is China’s thriving new technology economy and the development of areas such as the Internet of Things, artificial intelligence, cloud computing, fintech and blockchain. These technologies are based on computer software and algorithms, which are key assets for any company competing in the new technology arena.
Another reason is the growing awareness among local players of the strength of intellectual property rights in China.

This growth indicates that corporations are actively seeking to protect their computer software-related innovations by applying for intellectual property rights.

An Additional Layer of ProtectionWhen it comes to software-based innovations, copyright is one option for protecting computer programs. However, inventors and developers should be cautious about relying on copyright, as it does not prevent competitors from achieving the same effect by using programs that were developed independently.

The reason is that copyright essentially protects the expression of an idea rather than the idea itself. As such, software development companies cannot always rely on copyright protection to prevent competitors from reverse-engineering computer programs.

Copyright registration with the NCAC is encouraged because it strengthens protection, particularly in litigation, since a registration certificate can ease the burden associated with proving ownership rights.

Copyright protects the program and related documentation for software inventions — that is, sequences of statements and instructions, as well as the textual description of the software.

Ideas, processing procedures, methods of operation or mathematical concepts used in software development are not included and may be protected by patents.

For this reason, patents should always be the primary means of protection, while copyright registration serves as an additional layer of protection. It is reasonable to combine patents with software registration in an IP portfolio, bearing in mind that patents do not protect computer programs and algorithms as such.