China arrested 3,800 for IP crimes in 2016
Nearly 3,800 people in China were arrested for crimes related to intellectual property violations last year.
The Supreme People’s Procuratorate (SPP) released the details, according to Chinese news agency Xinhua.
More than 3,500 people were arrested for crimes involving trademark infringement, accounting for over 92% of all IP offenders in 2016. Other IP crimes included copyright infringement and commercial secrets misappropriation.
According to the SPP, which is China’s highest law supervision organ, agencies nationwide have stepped up efforts to protect IP by enhancing supervision over administrative and public security organs in transferring and filing IP violation cases.
China’s State Intellectual Property Office (SIPO) also announced that earlier this month it had signed a memorandum of understanding with the Swiss Federal Institute of Intellectual Property.
Chinese president Xi Jinping and Doris Leuthard, president of Switzerland, witnessed the signing of the memorandum.
According to the memorandum, the offices will continue to “strengthen in-depth cooperation in areas such as IP legislation and management, patent examination, personnel training, exchange of patent documents, IP operation and public service”.
In 2016, the number of domestic inventions applied for in China exceeded 1 million for the first time. SIPO said it had received 1.3 million applications, an increase of 21.5% from the previous year.
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