The term of protection of copyright is fifty years before and after the author's death (fifty years after the first publication of a legal person's work).
The term of protection of invention patents is 20 years, and that of utility model and design patents is 10 years, counting from the date of application. However, the protection is that after applying for approval to obtain the patent right, the patent examination procedure is cumbersome, and it usually takes about 3 years from application to obtaining the patent certificate. The software copyright protection period is 50 years, and it is protected by copyright from the date of development. Software has been protected by copyright law before obtaining patent right. Applying for a patent does not affect its protection by copyright law. You have enough patience to wait for patent approval.
Article 9 of the Copyright Law of People's Republic of China (PRC) includes:
(1) author;
(2) Other natural persons, legal persons or unincorporated organizations that enjoy copyright according to this Law. Article 10 Copyright includes the following personal rights and property rights:
(a) the right to publish, that is, the right to decide whether the work is open;
(2) the right of signature, that is, the right to indicate the identity of the author and sign his name on the work;
(3) the right to modify, that is, the right to modify or authorize others to modify a work;
(four) the right to protect the integrity of the work, that is, the right to protect the work from distortion and tampering;
(5) the right of reproduction, that is, the right to make one or more copies of a work by means of printing, photocopying, rubbing, audio recording, video recording, copying, remaking and digitization;
(6) the right of distribution, that is, the right to provide the original or duplicate of a work to the public by way of sale or gift;
(seven) the right to rent, that is, the right to temporarily license others to use the original or copy of audio-visual works and computer software, except that computer software is not the main object of rent;
(8) The right to exhibit, that is, the right to publicly display the original or duplicate of an artistic work or photographic work;
(nine) the right to perform, that is, the right to publicly perform a work and publicly broadcast the performance of the work in various ways;
(10) the right to show, that is, the right to publicly copy art, photography, audio-visual works, etc. Through projectors, slide projectors and other technical equipment;
(11) The right to broadcast, that is, the right to publicly broadcast or replay a work by wired or wireless means, and the right to broadcast a work to the public through loudspeakers or other similar tools for transmitting symbols, sounds and images, but not including the right specified in Item 12 of this paragraph;
(12) the right of information network communication, that is, the right to provide it to the public by wired or wireless means, so that the public can obtain the works at the time and place of their choice;
(thirteen) the right to shoot, that is, the right to fix the work on the carrier by shooting audio-visual works;
(14) the right of adaptation, that is, the right to change a work and create a new work with originality;
(15) the right to translation, that is, the right to convert a work from one language into another;
(16) the right of assembly, that is, the right to assemble a work or fragments of a work into a new work through selection or arrangement;
(seventeen) other rights that should be enjoyed by the copyright owner.
The copyright owner may license others to exercise the rights specified in Items (5) to (17) of the preceding paragraph and get remuneration in accordance with the agreement or the relevant provisions of this Law.
The copyright owner may assign all or part of the rights specified in Items (5) to (17) of the first paragraph of this article and get remuneration in accordance with the agreement or the relevant provisions of this Law.