Software copyright is automatically generated as soon as software development is completed. Registration is not a necessary condition for the creation of rights. Software copyright registration application means the copyright owner submits an application to the China Copyright Protection Center, which will review and issue a software copyright registration certificate. We checked the relevant laws and regulations and compared the old and new laws and regulations, and found two completely opposite opinions.

1. Registration is the prerequisite for software copyright to obtain administrative and legal protection

According to Article 24 of the "Computer Software Protection Regulations" promulgated in 1991: "Report to the software registration management agency Registration of software copyright is a prerequisite for administrative settlement or litigation of software rights disputes according to these regulations. "This provision is very unreasonable. Unregistered software is not subject to administrative protection, and even if it is infringed, it is not possible to file a lawsuit in court. . Although it is not stated that software must be registered to receive legal protection, in fact, unregistered software is excluded from legal protection. It can be considered that software copyright registration is compulsory to a certain extent.

This regulation was partially rejected by the Supreme People's Court in 1993 in the "Notice on Several Issues Concerning the In-depth Implementation of the Copyright Law of the People's Republic of China". Article 3 of the Interpretation stipulates: “…any party filing a lawsuit over a computer software copyright dispute shall, upon review, comply with the provisions of Article 108 of the Civil Procedure Law of the People’s Republic of China, regardless of whether the software has passed the relevant If the software is infringed, we can still file a lawsuit in court even if it is not registered.

2. Whether software copyrights are registered is entirely voluntary

According to Article 7 of the "Computer Software Protection Regulations" promulgated in 2002: "Software copyright holders may apply to the State Council Copyright Administration The software registration agency recognized by the department shall handle the registration. The registration certification document issued by the software registration agency is the preliminary proof of the registration matter. "This article stipulates that software copyright registration is not mandatory." Whether to register or not depends entirely on the voluntariness of the parties concerned.

3. Software copyright registration has nothing to do with obtaining copyright

What everyone is most concerned about is the issue of software copyright. Can software be copyrighted if it is not registered? This question has a clear answer in the "Computer Software Protection Regulations". Article 5 of the Regulations stipulates: "Chinese citizens, legal persons or other organizations enjoy copyright in accordance with these regulations for software developed by them, whether published or not."

There are two main approaches to copyright acquisition in national legislation:

1. Automatic acquisition system,

2. Registration acquisition system.

my country adopts an automatic acquisition system. The automatic acquisition system uses the completion time of the work as the time limit for copyright acquisition. The copyright is acquired upon completion of the work without any formalities. Completion does not require that it be completely completed. If it is partially completed, the copyright will be reserved for the completed part. Article 5 of the "Computer Software Protection Regulations" stipulates that regardless of whether it is published or not, the enjoyment of copyright in accordance with this article is the embodiment of the automatic acquisition system.

According to the provisions of the "Computer Software Protection Regulations", we can draw the conclusion that software copyright registration is not a prerequisite for software to obtain copyright. As long as the software is completed (including partial completion), it automatically enjoys copyright and is subject to Legal protection, whether the software copyright has been registered has nothing to do with whether the copyright can be obtained.