Hangzhou released an IPR protection report on May 5. Director of Hanghzou Municipal Science and Technology Bureau Lou Jianren reported the IPR protection in 2011 and put forward a special action program focused on IPR enforcement and protection in 2012.
Hangzhou became the first copyright protection demonstration city in 2007 and was listed in the first batch of national IPR demonstration cities in April 2012. In a bid to improve IPR protection and maintain a fair and orderly market environment, Hangzhou started the special action against IPR infringing and counterfeiting on December 21, 2010. According to statistics, Hangzhou dispatched law enforcement staff for 63,291 person-times, checked over 91,432 business entities, investigated over 1,000 IPR infringing and counterfeiting cases valued at 23,594,800 yuan, dismantled 95 illicit production and sales spots, handled more than 900 illegal websites, destroyed 0.3 million pieces of infringing and pirated products and detained 11,349,000 pieces of infringing import and export goods valued at 31,629,000 yuan. Judicial organs uncovered 129 IPR infringing and counterfeiting cases, seized 224 suspects, ratified the arrest of 64 suspects in 42 cases and sentenced 56 persons in 17 criminal cases (with money involved exceeding 34 million yuan).
In addition, cases of IPR infringement on Internet increase year by year. Hangzhou Municipal IPO will work with Taobao to build an online shopping IPR protection model and a right-safeguarding mechanism used for online IPR infringement reports and complaints, gradually incorporating online IPR protection into daily work.
Reportedly, Hangzhou will conduct a special action for IPR enforcement and protection from March to December, 2012, which will focus on the crackdown on patent counterfeiting and other IPR violations of goods, small household appliances, food, furniture, cultural and creative products (merchandise) in large shopping malls, supermarkets, specialized markets and virtual markets.
(Source: IPR in China)
