White Paper Grapples With Increasing Online IP Crimes

With the continued development of the Internet and wider use of personal mobile devices, online platforms have become a new tool and place for intellectual property rights crime, according to a white paper recently released by the Shanghai Pudong district procuratorate.


The white paper for 2010 to 2014 period said criminal cases of infringing upon intellectual property rights keep increasing each year. With the rapid development of the Internet, crimes such as selling goods with counterfeit trademarks are particularly acute.


The white paper also said Taobao, the country's largest online shopping platform, is a major place for online infringements of intellectual property rights. Besides that, a growing number of criminals advertise on WeChat, China's most popular mobile messaging app.


Since 2014, the Shanghai Pudong district procuratorate has dealt with 77 intellectual property right crime cases, including one copyright infringement using a mobile phone app, which was the first of its kind in the country.