Over 3 mln trademarks registered in China

China made progress in its battle to protect intellectual property rights (IPR) last year with better implementation of relevant laws and regulations, the State Intellectual Property Office said in Beijing on Thursday.

By the end of 2007, China's registered trademarks have surpassed 3 million, according to a press conference of the Information Office of the State Council on Thursday.

In 2007 alone, the Trademark Office under the State Administration for Industry and Commerce received 708,000 trademark registration applications. Of these, 405,000 have been examined and 263,000 ratified.

Offices of industrial and commercial administration at all levels investigated 50,318 cases of trademark violations in 2007. A total of 28.17 million illegal trademark signs were confiscated, and 228 suspected offenders were transferred to judicial authorities, he said.

In the area of patent application, the office received 694,000 patent applications from home and abroad, an increase of 21.1 percent from the previous year, spokesman Yin Xintian told a press conference.

Of the applications, those from China totaled 5,401, up 41.2 percent from the previous year. The United States filed the most applications, followed by Japan, Germany, France, the Republic of Korea, Britain and China itself, according to Yin.

He added such patent applications in China had reached 4 million by the end of last year, with the last 1 million patent applications obtained in just 18 months.

Meanwhile, offices of copyright administration and management at all levels across the country dealt with 50,318 cases of trademark violation, during which some 75.69 million pirated products were confiscated, including pirated books, magazines, audio and visual products, as well as e-publications and software discs.