China plans to lower the threshold for laying criminal charges against those that deal in counterfeit products by the end of this year, a senior Chinese official said at an international meeting in Shanghai on Monday.

While the change indicates the country is stepping up its fight against counterfeit products, some business representatives Shanghai Daily contacted yesterday said the move is not enough to solve the problem.

"By the year's end, the country's supreme court and prosecutors will give a new judicial interpretation lowering the threshold for criminal punishment of IPR infringement," Liu Wenjie, vice director of China's General Administration of Customs, said during the Global Congress/World Customs Organization Regional Forum on Protection of Intellectual Property Rights in the city yesterday.

He said that China is facing more challenges battling against counterfeit products from overseas, particularly pirated audio and video.

He added that the Chinese Customs has discovered more than 200 million pirated disks in recent years.

Xiang xin, secretary general of the State Office of Intellectual Property Protection, said in a speech yesterday that the threshold for criminal punishment in cases of IPR infringement will be lowered "properly."

She also said punishments for online piracy, and the transportation, storage and distribution of counterfeit products will be stipulated clearly.

Currently, according to the Chinese law, an individual will only face criminal punishment for selling pirated DVDs if he earns more than 100,000 yuan (US$12,048) from the enterprise. Organizations need to earn at least 500,000 yuan before they face criminal charges.

Lower thresholds will make it much easier to send those dealing in pirated goods to jail, officials said yesterday.

"Under the lower threshold, the Chinese police will be able to arrest more counterfeiters," said Jack Chang, assistant general counsel for Johnson & Johnson. "However, simply lowering the threshold for criminal punishment is definitely not enough to solve the problem."

"More importantly, the police should do more to ferret out the 'people' behind each counterfeit-related case instead of just arresting some minor underlings," Chang added.

(Shanghai Daily November 23, 2004)