SIPO Briefs on China's IPR Enforcement Efforts in 2012 

The State Intellectual Property Office of China (SIPO) held a briefing on 21 March 2013 to report on China’s IP rights enforcement efforts achieved by its courts and administrative agencies on national scale in year 2012. Highlights of relevant data released are as follows:

1. 87,419 new IP-related civil cases of first instance (up 45.99% year-on-year) were accepted by the courts; 
2. 17,244 IPR infringement criminal cases transferred from the public security bureaus (up 203.1% year-on-year), and 5,256 IPR infringement criminal cases requesting approval of arrests of suspects (up 20.3% year-on-year) were accepted by the procuratorates;
3. 44,000 criminal cases concerning production and sale of counterfeit and substandard goods, valued in total at RMB 11.31 billion, were cracked by the public security bureaus;
4. more than 90 million pieces of infringing goods in 15,000 plus batches were detained, and 4,138 applications for IP rights recordation were approved by the customs;
5. 120,400 cases of IPR infringement and passing off, involving a value in total of RMB 851 million, and 112,000 cases of free riding on brands, involving a value in total of RMB 274 million, were prosecuted by the administrative authorities for industry and commerce;
6. 2,510 patent dispute cases were accepted, and 6,512 cases of patent passing off were prosecuted by the IP administrative authorities;
7. 282 cases of online copyright infringement and piracy were prosecuted, and 183 websites were shut down by the copyright administrative authorities.