China's piracy police make progress
By Cui Ning (China Daily)
Updated: 2004-04-14 00:21

China's patent, trademark and copyright administrations are joining up to further slash intellectual property rights (IPR) piracy across the nation, better protecting the rights of domestic and overseas owners.

Since China began to massively crack down on the piracy of compact disc and video compact disc products in 1996, the country has closed down the operations of 182 illegal CD and VCD producers, Wang Ziqiang, an official of the National Copyright Administration said at a news conference Tuesday in Beijing.

The State Council Information Office briefing was held to reveal the achievements as well as problems of property rights infringements in China.

Officials said the 182 production lines were all introduced from abroad since China has no capacity of independently building such lines, said Wang.

"Illegal CD and VCD production have badly influenced the country's economic and cultural development... and anti-piracy is a long-term hard work. Copyright piracy will be effectively eliminated as long as the Chinese Government make consistent efforts,'' said Wang.

Last year, copyright authorities across the country seized more than 12 million various pirated products. Some 2,542 copyright violaters were punished with fines reaching 2.81 million yuan (US$338,000).

Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, and Guangdong, Henan, Jiangsu and Fujian provinces saw the most serious violations , according to Wang's administration.

Touching on the issue of patent protections, Wang Jingchuan, commissioner of State Intellectual Property Office, did not deny that there are continuing complaints from American and Japanese companies about Chinese firms' cheating on patents. Wang said he fully understands the foreign companies' complaints and even lawsuits against Chinese companies the overseas firms have filed.

Public's IPR and fair competition awareness in China is still weak since the country is in a preliminary phase of becoming a market economy, said Wang.

"We are willing to hear opinions and suggestions from around the world to seriously handle IPR issues in accordance with both international practices and China's laws,''he said.

Last year, public security authorities nationwide also intensified crackdowns on IPR violations. More than 34,000 cases of copyright infringement and pornography-making and selling activities were slashed, with 41,000 involved suspects arrested.

With regards to trademark protection, the State Administration of Industry and Commerce accepted more than 452,000 trademark applications last year, up 21.6 per cent from 2002, breaking a record for the country.

Nearly 8 per cent of the applications are from overseas companies.

Last year, trademark administrations throughout China cracked down on 37,489 trademark violation cases and destroyed more than 5,754 tons of goods that involved trademark violations.

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