Top entertainers from across China will take part in a concert
later this month to promote the fight against fake goods.
More than 100 stars, including 20 from Hong Kong, Macao and
Taiwan, have been invited to take part in the event, being
sponsored by the Chinese Government, in Beijing on February 26.
"This is the first time the central government has held such an
event to protect intellectual property rights (IPR)," said Liu Jie,
deputy director of the copyright department of the National
Copyright Administration.
"The concert is designed to raise anti-piracy awareness among
the general public, especially music fans," Liu added.
Luo Wei, concert director, said the main stage will be made to
look like a huge CD.
Tickets for the concert will cost between 100 and 1,000 yuan
(US$12 to US$120), organizers said, with all proceeds going into a
national anti-piracy fund set aside by the China Audio-Video
Association for their on-going effort to root out piracy.
News of the concert follows a new nationwide fight against
piracy that began at the end of last year when the Supreme People's
Court lowered the legal threshold needed to convict IPR infringers
and instituted harsher penalties.
Statistics indicate the country seized more than 154 million
illegal audio-video products in 2004, the most in any single year
in the past two decades.
This year, nearly 400,000 enforcement officials across the
country will be called on to further slash copyright infringement
activities, said Zhang Zhigang, vice minister of commerce.
Addressing a recent conference on IPR in Beijing, Zhang said
that Beijing and Shanghai municipalities and another 13 provinces
will be the main target areas because they have had the most
copyright violations in recent years.
Zhang, who is also director of the Office for the National IPR
Protection Working Group, called on regional industrial and
commercial administrations to listen to the opinions of both
domestic and foreign companies in China to better learn their
demands for IPR protection.
Wang Ziqiang, an official with the National Copyright
Administration, said China has incorporated copyright protection
into many sectors, including film and television, and advertising
over the past two decades.
"However, copyright violations are still serious in some regions
due to the public's weak awareness of IPR protection," Wang said,
"Fighting against copyright infringement is a long and unremitting
task."
Domestic companies should take note of IPR issues, according to
Li Shunde, a senior professor with the IPR Center at the Chinese
Academy of Social Sciences.
Li said domestic companies should safeguard their own
intellectual property rights.
Sources from the State
Intellectual Property Office said some domestic companies, the
Beijing Jinying Aige Decorative Materials Co Ltd for example, have
performed well in protecting their own intellectual property
rights.
Jiang Zhipei, chief judge of the IPR Tribunal at the Supreme
Peoples' Court, said IPR cases, especially trademark and copyright
violations, have become more complicated in the past two years as
violators usually team up with smugglers, making it more
difficulties to catch them.
US Chamber of Commerce
Disputes over alleged IPR violations in China have affected the
country's relations with many Western countries.
The US Chamber of Commerce has reportedly asked the US
Government to begin World Trade Organization talks on China's
enforcement record for counterfeiting and piracy.
The chamber said it has also asked the US Trade Representative's
office to list China as a priority watch country, something which
could eventually lead to trade sanctions.
Commenting on the news, Li Shunde said the US Government
annually criticized China's attempts to crack down on piracy.
Although China does have problems in this area, "the US does so
because of its own interests, and its allegations about China's IPR
protection are not completely correct," he said.
(China Daily?February 15, 2005)