China cracked 2,991 intellectual property rights (IPR) related crimes in the past 12 months, which involved 2.06 billion yuan (251 million US dollars), the Ministry of Public Security announced in Beijing Tuesday.

A spokesman for the information office of the ministry said 5,001 suspects for IPR violation have been arrested in the period.

The operation is an important move in China's combat against IPR infringement in recent years.

The one-year-long operation, dubbed as "Hawk" campaign, was launched by China's public security departments in November 2004 to crack down on IPR infringement nationwide. The economic losses retrieved from the cases have reached 990 million yuan (121 million US dollars).

Various types of commodities were involved in the campaign, ranging from fake Toyota, Nissan and Mazda accessories, counterfeit Chanel and Boss cosmetics, household electronic appliances, medicine, clothing, tobacco and alcohol.

Chinese Vice Premier Wu Yi said Monday that China will enhance cooperation with the European Union (EU) in protecting IPR, during a meeting with Laszlo Kovacs, EU Taxation and Customs Commissioner.

The IPR protection is motivated by China's internal need to accelerate its economic and social development, Wu said, adding that China has dedicated much efforts to legislation and law-enforcement in IPR protection.

China has officially started formulating its national strategy for IPR at the beginning of this year. The leading group for IPR strategy formulation is chaired by Wu.

In July this year, top Chinese and US trade officials reached a consensus on IPR protection. The two sides agreed to set up cooperation mechanisms on cross-border prosecutions for IPR violations and on the protection of movie copy rights,

A white paper issued by the Information Office of the State Council in April said Chinese public security organs cracked 5,305 criminal cases of infringement on IPR, which involved nearly 2.2 billion yuan, and arrested 7,100 suspects between 2000 and 2004.

In view of increasing transnational and trans-border criminal cases of IPR infringement, Chinese public security organs attach great importance to international law-enforcement cooperation in the fight against IPR infringement, and have conducted cooperation with law-enforcement organizations of various countries in assistance in investigation and collection of evidence, exchange of information and judicial assistance, the white paper said.

Jiang Zhipei, presiding judge of the third civil court of China's Supreme People's Court, said in an interview with Xinhua recently that China has established a full-fledged legal system to protect intellectual property rights.

Chinese courts heard about 15,000 cases on IPR last year and at least 400 offenders of IPR laws are put into prison every year, much more than most of other countries in the world, showing China's determination to crack down on IPR infringement, Jiang said.

"With a population of 1.3 billion, China still stays at a low level in terms of economy, culture and technology. But we have set quite a tough goal in IPR protection," said Zhang Zhigang, director of the State Office of Intellectual Property Protection.

"We have been trying not only to improve the legislation process for IPR protection in two decades, which Western countries spent more than a hundred years, but also to evoke the public's protection awareness," said Zhang, adding that "In the fight against piracy, we will never retreat."

Source: Xinhua