China IP SME Helpdesk Newsletter

Voluntary copyright registration is useful in China especially when starting enforcement proceedings in case of an infringement because authorities would require you to show copyright certificate as proof of your rights before taking up your case. In this article, the China IP SME Helpdesk external expert Dr Jian Xu explains how to register copyright in China.

The official fees of design registration and post-registration services in Hong Kong will be reduced with effect from 1 March 2024. The reduction is part of the authorities’ attempt to “promote the further development of intellectual property trading”.

According to the Supreme People’s Court’s data, “the SPC's Intellectual Property Court, a national-level IP court, handled 18,924 cases from January 2019” when the court was established. A large number of those cases involved foreign litigants. According to data, the court ruled in the favour of the rights holders in about 80% of the cases.

In 2023, in China “copyrights were registered for more than 6.4 million works, up 42.3 percent year-on-year”. More than half of those works were categorised as art works. While copyright in China arises automatically and there is no requirement to register it, registration is highly recommended because the registration certificate is needed for quicker and smoother enforcement proceedings in case of an infringement.

According to police authorities, in 2023, “the Chinese police investigated 40,000 cases involving the violation of intellectual property rights (IPRs) or the manufacturing and selling of substandard goods”. This is part of the Chinese authorities’ attempt to crack down on IP infringements more strongly.