The Intellectual Property Office of Singapore (Ipos), trade associations like the Singapore Infocomm Technology Federation (SiTF) and the Association of Small and Medium Enterprises (ASME), and software industry watchdog Business Software Alliance (BSA) launched this initiative on Tuesday, in a new effort to promote the use of authorised software here.

BSA's regional director Jeffrey Hardee said many SMEs 'often do not know what software is installed on their computers'. The new voluntary audit will enable companies to identify what software they have.

Those that clear the audit will be eligible for software discounts and free gifts like printers. They will also get a year's limited immunity from lawsuits by BSA members, which include Microsoft, Apple and Adobe.

If an audited company is found to be using pirated software, BSA will give the firm 14 days to make good before it sues.

According to a 2007 BSA survey, about 37 per cent of computers here are running pirated software.

While the survey did not give a breakdown of the types of companies, it is probably safe to say that most of these are smaller companies rather than larger, publicly-listed ones which have more to lose,' said Mr Hardee.

The new SME IT Protect initiative will encourage 'businesses to do the right thing,' said Ipos director-general Liew Woon Yin.

The initiative is an extension of a similar effort targeting larger corporations two years ago. Then, more than 500 multinationals and large corporations opted for the audit.

The companies then discovered that their employees had installed 'all sorts of interesting things', said Singapore International Chamber of Commerce chief executive Philip Overmyer, including pirated software and video games.