TIPS^®  Taiwan Intellectual Property Special

China Updates

China Officially Joins Two WIPO Treaties

The twenty-fifth meeting of the Standing Committee of the Tenth National People’s Congress has passed the decision on joining two treaties under the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), namely the WIPO Copyright Treaty and the WIPO Performances and Phonograms Treaty, on December 29, 2006. China is the second largest Internet community in the world, with the second largest number of Internet users and computer owners. Becoming a signatory of the two treaties indicates Chinese government’s determination to combat copyright and most importantly, copyright related to digital works on the Internet. These two treaties only apply to Mainland China at the moment, and Hong Kong and Macau are excluded. Moreover, the Chinese government also specifically declared that China will not be constrained by Paragraph 1 of Article 15 of the WIPO Performance and Phonograms Treaty, which states that “Performers and producers of phonograms shall enjoy the right to a single equitable remuneration for the direct or indirect use of phonograms published for commercial purposes for broadcasting or for any communication to the public.”