Over 4,000 Chinese arrested for copyright violations

Beijing, Jan.12 (ANI): Over 4,000 people have been arrested for violating intellectual property rights (IPR) since last October 2010, a senior Chinese Government official has said.

Gao Feng, Deputy Director of the Economic Crimes Investigation Bureau at the Ministry of Public Security, told a news conference here on Tuesday that his agency had uncovered more than 2,000 cases since China launched a six-month campaign to boost enforcement of intellectual property rights protection in October.

The financial value of the cases totaled 2.3 billion Yuan (348 million dollars), the China Daily quoted Gao, as saying.

He also said that the number of arrests and cases had tripled from the same time last year as had their financial value.

On Tuesday, the Supreme People's Court (SPC), the Supreme People's Procuratorate and the Ministry of Public Security jointly issued a judicial document to enforce the crackdown on IPR infringement.

The document covers a number of areas concerning IPR violation including proof of collection, standard penalties that should be applied and accounting the transaction value. (ANI)