Qian Yongming, director-general of the municipal IPR administration, introduced the latest developments in Shanghai's work on patents, trademarks and copyright, alongside high-level officials from related municipal organizations, including Shanghai Customs, Shanghai Administration for Industry and Commerce and Shanghai High People's Court.

Qian said the government has carried out a series of activities, including re-establishing the IPR Coordination Conference that combined the force of 18 municipal bureaus and units.

At the same time, the city has taken strict measures against intellectual property infringements and piracy.

Last year, the IPR administration accepted 42 patent-dispute cases, and 56 cases -- including backlogs -- were concluded. In addition, it handled four cases on counterfeit patents, among which three were concluded.

Gu Renda, deputy director-general of Shanghai Administration for Industry and Commerce, said: "We have focused on promoting the protection of the exclusive right of trademarks by rectifying and regularizing market order and strengthening the management of trademark application."

Last year's administration statistics showed that the number of trademark applications reached 11,217, an increase of 19 percent compared to 9,455 in 2000.

Last year, Shanghai copyright trade increased tremendously, as did the quality, copyright bureau officials said.

The Shanghai Administration of Culture, Radio, Film and Television has cooperated with the Shanghai Police Bureau to jointly issue the Schedule on Improving and Regularizing the Audio-video Market of Shanghai.

Last year, the two bureaus destroyed 4.4 million illegal audio-video products and handled 46 cases.

Shanghai Customs has also enforced measures to protect IPR. Last year, the customs uncovered 49 infringement cases with a value of 5.7 million yuan (US$690,000).

Most of the representatives showed their satisfaction with the municipality's work last year and said they found the briefing helpful.

Said Sujan Chinoy, consul general of the Consulate General of India: "As a developing country, we are trying to learn the practices of China in dealing with such issues. The briefing held by the municipality is a good chance for me to learn more about laws and regulation on IPR protection."

(China Daily July 25, 2002)