The need for better protection of Chinese character fonts in the Copyright Law was a hot topic at China's largest conference on intellectual property, which began on May 28 in Beijing.

Organized by the China Law Society, the three-day United States-China Intellectual Property Adjudication Conference drew more than 100 participants including judges from the two countries, intellectual property lawyers and company representatives.

Enhancing copyright protection and tightening the crackdown on piracy are highlights in amendments to the draft of the Copyright Law now under public review, said Wang Ziqiang, director of the National Copyright Administration's department of policy and regulations.

Fonts should be classified as computer software and protected by the Copyright Law, said Ni Guangnan, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, in his speech to the forum.

His view was echoed by Zhang Jin, a professor at the China University of Political Science and Law.

If one typeface is original and can be "conceptually" separated from the character itself, it should be eligible for copyright protection, Zhang said.

Lu Shan, a judge at the intellectual property tribunal of Nanjing Intermediate People's Court, said a typeface should be entitled to legal protection as long as it is created independently, looks substantially different from all existing ones and has aesthetic value.

The originality of works of art is one prerequisite for their protection in accordance with the Copyright Law, Lu added.

Whether Chinese character fonts are eligible for copyright protection or not has been the focus of an unsettled lawsuit filed by Beijing Founder Electronics Co Ltd five years ago.

In 2007, Founder, the major developer and owner of Chinese fonts, took California-based software developer Blizzard Entertainment Inc to court, complaining that the company used its typefaces in the game World of Warcraft without approval.

China had dozens of typeface design companies in the 1990s. Now there are only five, including Founder.

It is necessary to give Chinese character fonts more protection to boost their development, said Gao Fuping, head of the School of Intellectual Property at East China University of Political Science and Law.

Though the sum of compensation in the Copyright Law is likely to double to 1 million yuan it will not be appropriate for all cases, said Zhang Ping, a professor at the Intellectual Property Law School of Peking University.

The principle of discretion shall be applied when it comes to compensation, Zhang added.

Without sufficient protection, local typeface designers or font developers might go bankrupt or be acquired by their foreign counterparts, said Sun Le, secretary-general of the Chinese Information Processing Society.

If that happens, "the Chinese people or companies will have to pay foreigners for Chinese character fonts," he added.

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(China Daily 06/06/2012 page17)