South China's Guangdong Province, a leader in patent and
trademark development, is determined to further its efforts in
cracking down on the infringement of intellectual property rights
(IPR).
Statistics provided by the Guangdong provincial intellectual
property protection authority show that the province received
90,886 patent applications last year, of which 43,516 were
approved, the largest number anywhere in the country.
By the end of last year, Guangdong had registered 350,000
trademarks.
Li Zhongduo, director of the Guangdong provincial intellectual
property office, said at a press conference yesterday: "Besides
achievements in patent and trademark development, we will continue
to carry out a series of moves to root out IPR violations."
Last year, the authorities of public security and customs
investigated 1,032 cases of IPR infringement, and the copyright and
culture offices investigated 7,888 cases, involving more than 75
million items of audio and video products.
An IPR education campaign and a high-level IPR forum were also
launched yesterday in the provincial capital city of Guangdong, to
increase the public's awareness of IPR protection.
"Guangdong is one of the nation's leading suppliers of audio and
visual products, and IPR protection here has been particularly
challenging," Li said.
According to Li, Guangdong will soon carry out a province-wide
campaign to check all shops selling CDs, books and other
products.
Further, the province will strengthen cooperative efforts with
neighbors Hong Kong and Macao, to beef up the crackdown on
cross-border IPR infringements, Li said.
Guangdong has an IPR cooperative agreement with Hong Kong, Macao
and seven Pan-Pearl River Delta (PRD) provinces of Fujian, Jiangxi,
Hunan, Hainan, Sichuan, Guizhou, Yunnan and the Guangxi Zhuang
Autonomous Region.
The Pan-PRD Intellectual Property Cooperation Agreement has
played a crucial role in the "creation, protection, administration
and application of IPR," according to Li.
Meanwhile, Shenzhen customs yesterday destroyed more than five
million items found to have infringed intellectual property rights.
They had an estimated value of 50 million yuan (US$6.4
million).
The goods included cosmetics, watches, handbags, video game
players and automobile parts bearing the names of leading world
brands such as Nokia, LV, Philips, Sony and Epson.
Shenzhen customs has taken a series of measures - the creation
of a more efficient information network, better risk management and
the strengthening of staff training - from the start of this year
to better monitor the import and export goods.
Up until last Wednesday, Shenzhen customs had successfully
investigated 80 IPR cases, which had a combined value of almost 7
million yuan (US$897,436).
(China Daily April 24, 2007)