China's specialized campaign to enforce intellectual property rights laws has been extremely successful, government officials said yesterday at the Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation (APEC) Symposium on IPR in Xiamen, Fujian Province.

Ma Enzhong, deputy secretary-general of the State Office of Intellectual Property Protection, said that since last September, nine criminal and administrative enforcement departments have been cooperating in a nationwide crackdown on piracy, counterfeits, and trademark and patent infringements.

"The campaign has been marked by considerable achievements," Ma said.

In the past 12 months, industry and commerce departments on all levels have investigated and dealt with 24,189 trademark infringement cases and imposed fines totaling 157 million yuan (US$19.36 million), Ma said.

Copyright and cultural agencies have seized more than 167 million pirated products, destroyed 24 assembly lines for illegal disc production and shut down more than 2,960 illegal printing operations, he said.

Ma went on to say that patent offices have investigated and dealt with 1,115 instances of patent infringements, and 153 instances of patent counterfeiting.

Customs authorities have investigated and dealt with 949 IPR infringement cases of imported and exported goods with a value of 73 million yuan (US$9 million), he added.

Public security units have resolved 1,300 IPR infringement cases involving merchandise valued at 1 billion yuan (US$123.30 million) and have arrested 3,000 criminal suspects, he said.

"China has been putting great emphasis on IPR protection, which is a major pre-requisite to improving the country's investment environment," Fu Ziying, assistant minister of commerce, said.

(China Daily September 8, 2005)