Beijing is going to require the city's enterprises to use authentic computer software in any new computers, an official with the Beijing Copyright Administration said yesterday.

Wang Yefei, deputy director with the administration, said at a press conference that the order will take effect in some major enterprises, including state-owned, private and foreign ones, by the end of this month.

Wang said it is an important step in the city's efforts to protect intellectual property rights (IPR).

Wang said the Beijing municipal government achieved the goal of using authentic software in their own offices by the end of 2005, the first government entity in the country to do so.

The city is going to standardize PC software pre-installation practices to try to eliminate so-called naked computers, with requirements including:

The government will buy only computers that have authentic operating system software;

Domestic PC producers are required to install their products with authentic operating system software; and

Imported PCs should be installed with authentic operating system before sale.

Founder Technology Group Corporation, one of China's major PC makers, signed an agreement with the Microsoft Corporation yesterday to install authentic Microsoft software in all its PCs in the Chinese market.

Founder President Qi Dongfeng said the corporation would buy US$250 million worth of Microsoft Windows operating systems (simplified Chinese version) during a three-year period.

Liu Zhengang, director of the Beijing Intellectual Property Office, said the municipal government would set up a reporting center with a hotline to receive reports of IPR violations, but he did not set a date.

The center will have a rapid-reaction mechanism under which different governmental bureaux will jointly enforce IPR violations.

Liu said a licensed trademark sale system would be established in the city's garment and small commodities markets.

The system will require all vendors who sell goods with trademarks to provide the market owners with the certificates of authenticity.

Vendors who fail to prove the authenticity of their goods will not be allowed to enter the market. Market owners who shield them will also be punished.

According to a white paper issued on the press conference, Beijing authorities solved 1,791 trademark counterfeit cases last year, with a goods value of 105.56 million yuan (US$13.03 million). Fines totaling 8.87 million yuan (US$1.09 million) were assessed.

Among them, 778 cases were related to foreign trademarks. Forty-five cases were related to Olympic symbols with fines of 320,000 yuan (US$40,000).

Beijing police say they confiscated 4.8 million illegal publications last year, including books and audio and video products.

"It took China 20 years to build an IPR system that took developed countries at least a hundred years," Liu said.

"However, we still have a long way to go to raise public IPR awareness and standardize business activities concerning IPR."

(China Daily April 14, 2006)