The White Paper on Intellectual Property Rights in Beijing 2002-2003 was published by the Beijing municipal government on October 27. On the same day, the Outline of Development and Protection for Intellectual Property Rights in Beijing 2004-2008 was put into effect.

This is the first White Paper on intellectual property rights (IPR) launched by the Beijing municipal government since it decided to hold regular press conferences on the issue.

The paper says that various levels of Beijing law courts have accepted and heard 1,999 cases involving IPR infringement over the past two years, of which 1,975 have been settled. 

The Beijing IPR Bureau, founded on June 8, 2000, has accepted and heard 58 cases and, together with Beijing's Bureau of Commerce, has authenticated 50 shops that do not sell counterfeits of well-known trademarks.

The Beijing Municipal Bureau of Industry and Commerce settled 99 cases involving Olympic logos in 2002 and 270,000 signs were removed. In a one-month crackdown, 609 giant ads were taken down and 67,000 taxis ordered to remove ads misusing the logos. Some 130,000 goods were also found and seized.

The bureau handled 45 similar cases in 2003, imposing a total of 530,000 yuan in fines.

A total of 1,655 cases involving pornographic and pirated publications were dealt with in 2003, leading to the confiscation of 4.75 million goods and arrest of 2,252 people. Eighty-seven production facilities were also shut down.

Since the Trademark Law's launch in 2002, the municipal Bureau of Industry and Commerce confiscated 20,000 garments involving trademark violations at Dahongmen Garment Business and Trade Center, the biggest garment fair in north China.

Ten restaurants also lost their business licenses due to infringement of the popular "Three-Thousand-Li Korean Barbecue" brand.

The outline for 2004-2008 lists 69 new measures for IPR protection, including stronger enforcement, greater transparency and public trials. It also stipulates that IPR conflict warning and reaction procedures should be set up.

(China.org.cn by Unisumoon November 13, 2004)