Over 44,000 indicted for IPR infringement in three-year period in China

BEIJING -- China indicted 44,337 individuals for crimes related to intellectual property rights (IPR) infringement from 2021 to 2023, amid intensified efforts to combat such crimes, according to a white paper released by the Supreme People's Procuratorate (SPP) on Thursday.

During the three-year period, procuratorial organs nationwide approved the arrests of 17,547 individuals involved in over 10,600 cases of IPR infringement.

The white paper has revealed that trademark infringement constituted a significant portion of these violations, with noticeable increases observed in cases involving copyright infringement and the infringement of trade secrets.

In 2023, the number of copyright infringement cases increased 1.4 times from the year before, and the number of trade secret infringement cases surged 96.6 percent.

Regions with robust economic development, particularly China's eastern coastal areas, recorded a higher prevalence of intellectual property rights infringement cases. This trend suggests a positive correlation between the frequency of such cases and levels of economic and social development, as indicated in the white paper.

Gong Ming, deputy procurator-general of the SPP, said that procuratorial organs will conduct special operations proactively, enhance the protection of original enterprise innovation continuously, and hand down punishments for crimes that encroach upon the critical core technologies of enterprises in accordance with the law.