By Michael Martina
BEIJING, April 21 (Reuters) - China touted on Thursday progress in its campaign to ensure government offices do not use pirated software, but a senior official said that still less than half was properly copyrighted, underscoring the challenge ahead.
Two-fifths of central government offices were using legal software and another two fifths were in the buying process, said National Copyright Administration Vice Minister Yan Xiaohong.
Yan promised that all central government bodies would be using registered copyrighted software by the end of May and that by the end of October "all local government offices at various levels" would be in compliance.
"This is a very important for China to achieve transformation of its economic development pattern and build an innovative economy," Yan told a news conference.
China announced late last year that it would inspect government computers to ensure they were not using pirated software.
The United States and other Western countries have repeatedly complained that China has not kept promises to stamp out intellectual property theft.
Before President Hu Jintao's meeting with U.S. President Barack Obama in January, mounting pressure had pushed China to vow to crackdown on copyright piracy.
While China implemented a six-month campaign in November aimed at counterfeit books, music, DVDs and software, all are still openly available on Chinese streets.
U.S. officials said progress on illegal software had been made during U.S.-China trade talks in December, but some experts have argued it is difficult to rely on government claims that computers are in line without verification.
Elliot Papageorgiou, an intellectual property rights lawyer at Rouse Legal in Shanghai, said the government was unlikely to allow verification systems to be built into software for security reasons or to allow onsite checks.
Instead, China would probably appoint its own auditors.
"Until we see how verification is implemented, it all sounds a little like lip service," he said.
The China Daily newspaper said on Thursday that the headquarters of 129 large state-owned enterprises and 12,200 other enterprises had "fulfilled pledges to respect" copyrighted software.
Use of pirated software is also rampant in the private sector and on personal computers.
Microsoft and other members of the Business Software Alliance in the United States complained that nearly 80 percent of the software installed on personal computers in China was pirated in 2009. [ID:nN14288545]
Despite its professed efforts, critics say China is insincere in its attempts to curb violations and that it is moving in slow motion to crackdown on vendors and producers of infringing materials.
The International Intellectual Property Alliance, which represents U.S. copyright industry groups, has estimated that U.S. trade losses due to piracy in China surpassed $3.5 billion in 2009. [ID:nTOE6AP06O]
China argues that it needs more time to perfect its system of intellectual property protection, which cannot compare to the West's 300-year tradition -- a concept that is wearing thin with Western detractors.
"China only began the process of IP protection since its reform and opening up. To an individual, that may seem like a long time, but from an historical development perspective 30 years is a rather short period," Yan said. (Editing by Ben Blanchard and Robert Birsel)