More cases concerning intellectual property rights (IPRs) occurred in 2004 than in previous years. In particularly, those related to author's right, patent right and trademark right saw sharp rises, according to latest statistics from China's Supreme People's Court.

With regards to civil juristic protection, the people's courts at all levels dealt with a total of 8, 832 cases last year, 46.82 percent more than in 2003. Among the hiking cases concerning copyright, patent right and trademark right, those on copyright saw the largest growth rate: 4, 264 cases were newly brought to first instance, up 70.99 percent on a year-on-year basis.

In terms of criminal judicial protection, after the circular issued by the Supreme People's Court regarding further strengthening judicial protection of IPRs in September 2004, the Supreme People's Procuratorate, along with the supreme court, promulgated on December 21, 2004 the Interpretation Concerning Some Issues on the Specific Application of Law for Handling Criminal Cases of Infringement upon Intellectual Property Rights, which showed the nation's making more efforts in protecting IPRs.

Figures show, a total of 653 criminals involved in 385 cases were punished by the people's courts at various levels nationwide in 2004.

By People's Daily Online