| China makes progress in IPR protection |
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| Friday,April 18,2008 Posted: 10:32 BJT(0232 GMT) xinhua |
Officials said on Thursday that 2,967 people were arrested for suspected violations of intellectual property rights (IPR) in China in 2007.
At a press conference held in Beijing by the Information Office of the State Council, officials said that public security departments investigated 2,283 cases of IPR infringement and solved 2,008 cases, involving 1.49 billion yuan (some 213 million U.S. dollars).
A report, released jointly by the State Intellectual Property Office (SIPO), the National Copyright Administration and the Trademark Office under the State Administration for Industry and Commerce, said efforts to combat IPR infringement had made substantial progress last year.
Local courts tried 2,684 criminal cases that involved 4,328 persons, some of whom had been arrested in previous years, and 4,322 people were found guilty, according to the report.
Also, customs units across the country intercepted 7,467 import and export shipments of counterfeit items in 2007 valued at 438 million yuan, the report said.
It said cultural administrative enforcement authorities nationwide had had stepped up their daily efforts against criminal IPR violations.
According to the report, 4.91 million staff from cultural agencies inspected 850,000 audio and video outlets in 2007.
Authorities confiscated 110 million counterfeit CDs, DVDs and the like during nationwide IPR campaigns in 2007, it said.
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