In a bid to combat patent infringement and counterfeiting, an IP enforcement campaign under the theme "convoying" kicked off in Zhengzhou, capital city of Henan province, on April 13.

The campaign will be conducted in the process of producing, circulating, researching and developing. IPR infringing and counterfeiting activities related to people's livelihood, major projects and international trade will be severely cracked down. Cases on collective, repeated and patent infringements should be investigated carefully. Moreover, intellectual property rights in exhibitions should be well protected.

Different from the past years, this year, the campaign will mainly target large-scale shopping malls, supermarkets and trade markets in production and circulation field, especially on items ranging from commodities, food, drugs to medical equipment and on industries including new energy, new material, energy-saving and environmental friendly production and high-end equipment manufacturing.

In 2011, Zhengzhou saw a rise of 34.1% in patent filings with 10,997, of which 6,141 were granted. Invention patent applications and grants reached 2,800 and 850, up 14% and 53% respectively. Every ten thousand residents in the city owned 2.63 invention patents, four times more than the average level of the province. 61 IP cases were handled and concluded, of which 55 were related to patent disputes and 6 were on counterfeiting. In addition, 126 complaints on IP violations were successfully handled. Moreover, relevant departments conducted special campaigns for 15 times, confiscating 124 fake patented products valued at 2.3 million yuan.

(Source: IPR in China)