LAWS AND REGULATIONS

(Promulgated by Decree No. 339 of The State Council of the People's Republic of China on December 20, 2001, the first revision was made in accordance with the Decision of The State Council on Repealing and amending Some Administrative Regulations on January 8, 2011, and the second revision was made in accordance with the Decision of The State Council on Amending the Regulations on the Protection of Computer Software on January 30, 2013)

Chapter I General provisions

Article 1 These Regulations are formulated in accordance with the Copyright Law of the People's Republic of China for the purpose of protecting the rights and interests of copyright owners of computer software, adjusting the interest relations arising from the development, dissemination and use of computer software, encouraging the development and application of computer software, and promoting the development of the software industry and the informatization of the national economy.

Article 2 The term computer software (hereinafter referred to as software) as used in these Regulations refers to computer programs and their related documents.

Article 3 The meanings of the following terms in these Regulations:

(1) Computer program means a sequence of coded instructions that can be executed by a computer or other device with information processing capability in order to obtain a certain result, or a sequence of symbolized instructions or a sequence of symbolized statements that can be automatically converted into a sequence of coded instructions. The source program and the target program of the same computer program are the same work.

(2) Documents refer to text materials and diagrams used to describe the content, composition, design, functional specifications, development, test results and use methods of the program, such as program design instructions, flow charts, user manuals, etc.

(3) Software developer refers to a legal person or other organization that actually organizes the development, directly carries out the development, and assumes responsibility for the completed software development; Or rely on their own conditions to independently complete software development, and assume responsibility for the software of the natural person.

(4) Software copyright owners refer to natural persons, legal persons or other organizations that, in accordance with the provisions of these Regulations, enjoy copyright in software.

Article 4 Software protected by these Regulations must be independently developed by the developer and have been fixed on a tangible object.

Article 5 Chinese citizens, legal persons or other organizations shall enjoy copyright in the software developed by them, whether published or not, in accordance with these Regulations.

Software of foreigners and stateless persons first distributed within the territory of China shall enjoy copyright in accordance with these Regulations.

The software of foreigners and stateless persons shall be protected by these Regulations in accordance with the copyright enjoyed by the country to which the developer belongs or the country of habitual residence signed with China or in accordance with the international treaties to which China is a party.

Article 6 The protection of software copyright in these Regulations shall not extend to the ideas, processing processes, operating methods or mathematical concepts used in the development of software.

Article 7 A software copyright owner may register with a software registration organization recognized by the copyright administration department under The State Council. The registration certificate issued by the software registration authority is the preliminary proof of the registered items.

Fees shall be paid for software registration. The fee standards for software registration shall be prescribed by the copyright administration department under The State Council jointly with the competent pricing department under The State Council.

Chapter II Software copyright

Article 8 Software copyright owners shall enjoy the following rights:

(1) the right of publication, that is, the right to decide whether the software should be made public;

(2) The right of authorship, that is, the right to indicate the identity of the developer and to sign his name on the software;

(3) The right to modify, that is, the right to add or delete the software, or to change the order of instructions and sentences;

(4) The right to reproduce, that is, the right to make one or more copies of the software;

(5) The right of distribution, that is, the right to provide the original or duplicate copies of the software to the public by way of sale or donation;

(6) The right to lease, that is, the right to pay others to use the software temporarily, except that the software is not the main object of the lease;

(7) The right of information network dissemination, that is, the right to make software available to the public by wired or wireless means, so that the public can obtain the software at a time and place of their own choice;

(8) The right of translation, that is, the right to convert the original software from one natural language to another;

(9) Other rights that shall be enjoyed by the software copyright owner.

A software copyright owner may license others to exercise his software copyright and shall be entitled to remuneration.

A software copyright owner may transfer his software copyright in whole or in part and shall be entitled to remuneration.

Article 9 The copyright in software belongs to the software developer, except as otherwise provided in these Regulations.

In the absence of proof to the contrary, the natural person, legal person or other organization signed on the software shall be the developer.

Article 10 Where software is jointly developed by two or more natural persons, legal persons or other organizations, the ownership of the copyright shall be stipulated in a written contract signed by the co-developers. In the absence of a written contract or an explicit agreement in the contract, if the software jointly developed can be used separately, the developers may separately enjoy the copyright in the part developed by them. However, the exercise of copyright shall not extend to the copyright of the software as a whole. If the software jointly developed cannot be used separately, the copyright in the software shall be shared by the co-developers and exercised by consensus through consultation. If no consensus can be reached and there is no valid reason, neither party shall prevent the other party from exercising other rights except the right of transfer, but the proceeds shall be reasonably distributed to all co-developers.

Article 11 The ownership of copyright in software commissioned by others shall be stipulated in a written contract signed by the client and the agent; In the absence of a written contract or where it is not expressly stipulated in the contract, the copyright shall be enjoyed by the trustee.

Article 12 The ownership and exercise of copyright in software developed by a State organ shall be stipulated in a project assignment or contract; Where there is no explicit provision in the project assignment or contract, the software copyright shall be enjoyed by the legal person or other organization that accepts the assignment.

Article 13 If a natural person develops software during his tenure in a legal person or other organization under any of the following circumstances, the copyright of the software shall be enjoyed by the legal person or other organization, and the legal person or other organization may reward the natural person who developed the software:

(1) Software developed for the development objectives clearly specified in their own work;

(2) The software developed is a foreseeable or natural result of the activities of the work;

(3) Software that is mainly developed using material and technical conditions such as funds, special equipment, and undisclosed special information of a legal person or other organization for which the legal person or other organization is responsible.

Article 14 Software copyright shall come into being on the date of completion of software development.

For the software copyright of a natural person, the term of protection shall be the lifetime of the natural person and 50 years after his death, ending on December 31 of the 50th year after his death; The software is co-developed and expires on December 31 of the fiftieth year following the death of the last deceased natural person.

The term of protection of software Copyrights of legal persons or other organizations shall be 50 years, expiring on December 31 of the 50th year after the first publication of the software. However, these Regulations shall no longer protect software that has not been published within 50 years from the date of completion of development.

Article 15 Where the software copyright belongs to a natural person, after the death of the natural person, during the term of protection of the software copyright, the successor of the software copyright may, in accordance with the relevant provisions of the Succession Law of the People's Republic of China, inherit the other rights provided for in Article 8 of these Regulations except the right of authorship.

If the software copyright belongs to a legal person or other organization, after the legal person or other organization changes or terminates, its copyright shall be enjoyed by the legal person or other organization that assumes its rights and obligations during the period of protection provided for in these Regulations. If there is no legal person or other organization subject to its rights and obligations, the rights and obligations shall be enjoyed by the State.

Article 16 Owners of legal copies of software shall enjoy the following rights:

(1) according to the needs of the use of the software into the computer and other devices with information processing capacity;

(2) Making backup copies in order to prevent damage to the copies. These backup copies shall not be provided to others for use by any means, and all persons shall be responsible for destroying the backup copies when they lose the ownership of the legal copies;

(3) make necessary modifications in order to use the software in actual computer application environments or to improve its functions and performance; However, unless otherwise stipulated in the contract, the modified software shall not be provided to any third party without the permission of the software copyright owner.

Article 17 Anyone who uses software through installation, display, transmission or storage for the purpose of learning and researching the design ideas and principles contained in software may not obtain permission from, or pay remuneration to, the software copyright owner.

Chapter III Licensing and Transfer of software copyright

Article 18 Where a software copyright is licensed to others, a license contract shall be concluded.

The licensee shall not exercise any right not expressly granted by the software copyright owner in the license contract.

Article 19 Where another party is licensed to exclusively exercise the software copyright, the parties shall conclude a written contract.

Where no written contract is concluded or the contract does not explicitly stipulate that the license is exclusive, the rights licensed shall be deemed as non-exclusive rights.

Article 20 Where software copyright is transferred, the parties shall conclude a written contract.

Article 21 In entering into a license contract for the exclusive exercise of software copyright by another person, or into a contract for the transfer of software copyright, registration may be made with a software registration organization recognized by the copyright administration department under The State Council.

Article 22 Chinese citizens, legal persons or other organizations that license or transfer software Copyrights to foreigners shall comply with the relevant provisions of the Regulations of the People's Republic of China on the Administration of Technology Import and Export.

Chapter IV Legal liability

Article 23 Except as otherwise provided in the Copyright Law of the People's Republic of China or these Regulations, those who have committed the following acts of infringement shall, according to the circumstances, bear civil liabilities such as stopping the infringement, eliminating the impact, offering an apology, and compensating for losses:

(1) Publishing or registering software without the permission of the software copyright owner;

(2) publishing or registering others' software as their own;

(3) Publishing or registering software developed jointly with others as software completed solely by oneself without the permission of the partner;

(4) signing a signature on another person's software or changing the signature on another person's software;

(5) modifying or translating software without the permission of the software copyright owner;

(6) Other acts of infringement of software copyright.

Article 24 Except as otherwise provided in the Copyright Law of the People's Republic of China, these Regulations, or other laws and administrative regulations, those who, without the permission of the software copyright owner, commit the following acts of infringement shall, according to the circumstances, bear civil liabilities such as stopping the infringement, eliminating the impact, offering an apology, and compensating for losses. If at the same time the public interests are harmed, the copyright administration department shall order him to stop the infringing act, confiscate the illegal gains, confiscate or destroy the infringing copies, and may concurrently impose a fine; Where the circumstances are serious, the copyright administration department may also confiscate the materials, tools, equipment, etc. mainly used for making infringing copies; Those who violate the criminal law shall be investigated for criminal responsibility in accordance with the provisions of the Criminal Law on the crime of infringing copyright and the crime of selling infringing copies:

(1) reproducing or partially reproducing the software of the copyright owner;

(2) distributing, renting or disseminating the software of the copyright owner to the public through information networks;

(3) deliberately avoiding or destroying the technical measures taken by the copyright owner to protect his software copyright;

(4) Intentionally deleting or altering the electronic information of software rights management;

(5) transferring or licensing another person to exercise the software copyright of the copyright owner.

Those who commit acts in item 1 or Item 2 of the preceding paragraph may concurrently be fined 100 yuan for each item or not less than one time but not more than five times the value of the goods; Those who commit acts in items 3, 4 or 5 of the preceding paragraph may concurrently be fined not more than 200,000 yuan.

Article 25 The amount of compensation for software copyright infringement shall be determined in accordance with the provisions of Article 49 of the Copyright Law of the People's Republic of China.

Article 26 If a software copyright owner has evidence to prove that another person is committing or is about to commit an act infringing his rights, which, if not stopped in time, will cause irreparable damage to his legitimate rights and interests, he may, in accordance with the provisions of Article 50 of the Copyright Law of the People's Republic of China, Before instituting a lawsuit, apply to the people's court for measures to order the cessation of the relevant acts and property preservation.

Article 27 In order to stop the infringing act, the software copyright owner may, in accordance with Article 51 of the Copyright Law of the People's Republic of China, apply to the people's court for the preservation of evidence in accordance with the circumstances where the evidence may be lost or difficult to obtain later.

Article 28 Where the publisher or producer of a software copy cannot prove that its publication or production is legally authorized, or the publisher or lessee of a software copy cannot prove that the copy it distributes or rents has a lawful source, it shall bear legal responsibility.

Article 29 Software developed by a software developer that is similar to existing software due to the limited expressions available to it does not constitute an infringement of the copyright of the existing software.

Article 30 Where the holder of a software copy does not know and has no reasonable reason to know that the software is an infringing copy, he shall not be liable for compensation; However, the infringing copy shall be stopped from being used and destroyed. If the termination of use and destruction of the infringing copy will cause heavy losses to the user of the copy, the user of the copy may continue to use the copy after paying a reasonable fee to the software copyright owner.

Article 31 Software copyright infringement disputes may be mediated.

A dispute over a software copyright contract may be submitted to an arbitration institution for arbitration in accordance with the arbitration clause in the contract or a written arbitration agreement reached afterwards.

If the parties have not included an arbitration clause in the contract and there is no written arbitration agreement afterwards, they may bring a suit directly in a people's court.

Chapter V Supplementary Provisions

Article 32 Infringing acts occurring before the implementation of these Regulations shall be dealt with in accordance with the relevant provisions of the State at the time when the infringing acts occurred.

Article 33 These Regulations shall come into force as of January 1, 2002. The Regulations on the Protection of Computer Software promulgated by The State Council on June 4, 1991 shall be repealed simultaneously.

Source: All China Patent Agents Association