Complaints of intellectual property rights (IPR) violations will be received and handled round the clock in 50 major cities soon, Vice-Premier Wu Yi said yesterday.

"We'll leave violators nowhere to hide," she told a conference on IPR protection and innovation, co-organized by the China Enterprise Confederation (CEC), the All-China Federation of Industry & Commerce and the China Association of Enterprises with Foreign Investment.

The government has been sincere and serious in protecting IPRs, Wu said, adding that the country's improved legal framework, protection mechanisms, anti-piracy campaigns and publicity have helped a great deal.

Police and industrial watchdog staff dealt with 42,645 trademark infringement cases last year, with 3,529 people convicted and 845 facing trials, she added.

However, Wu admitted there is still a long way to go as IPR infringement is still rampant in some areas in certain cases, law enforcement is loose and government agencies are lenient with violators.

Wu called on businesses the mainstay of a market-oriented economy to take an active part in safeguarding IPRs, noting that "99 percent of companies on the mainland have never applied for a patent, and only 40 percent of them own a trademark."

Competition among companies will mainly be a contest of IPRs and every business has a duty towards IPR protection, she said.

An environment which ensures IPR protection will be a major attraction to overseas investors, she said.

CEC President Chen Jinhua said that on average, only 3 out of every 10,000 Chinese companies have independent IPRs. Between April 1985 and last December, the State Intellectual Property Office received only 2.76 million patent applications.

Yang Yuanqing, chairman of Lenovo Group, said the company had purchased software worth 10 billion yuan (US$1.23 billion) from Microsoft over the years, showcasing its commitment to respecting IPRs.

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