More than 73 million pirated products were confiscated by copyright administrative authorities in 2006, a spokesman for the State Intellectual Property Office (SIPO) said in Beijing Tuesday.

The confiscated products include more than 18 million pirated books, 1.1 million periodicals, 48 million audio-visual products, 2.01 million electronic publications and 3.79 million software discs, spokesman Yin Xintian said at a press conference.

Customs offices across the country investigated and handled a total of 2,473 intellectual property infringement cases in 2006, involving nearly 200 million items of goods valued at more than 200 million yuan (25.6 million U.S. dollars).

Yin said there was a remarkable growth in patent applications and patents granted in 2006.

Statistics show that the SIPO received a total of 573,000 patent applications in 2006, an increase of 20 percent over 2005. A total of 268,000 patents were granted, up 25 percent on the previous year.