Procuratorates approve arrest of 7,430 for IPR infringement in 2019

BEIJING -- China's procuratorates approved the arrest of 7,430 suspects for infringing intellectual property rights (IPR) in 2019, up 24.3 percent year on year, according to the Supreme People's Procuratorate (SPP) on Saturday.

The suspects were involved in 4,346 cases, which represented a rise of 31.5 percent from the previous year, the SPP said.

The SPP said 11,003 people involved in 5,433 cases were prosecuted last year, up 32.2 percent and 21.9 percent from 2018, respectively.

Over the past 20 years, the number of criminal cases of IPR infringement in China has risen sharply, said Zheng Xinjian, a prosecutor with the SPP. He added that over 190 people were prosecuted for IPR infringement in 1999, while the number has increased by about 56 times in 2019.

Zheng noted that trademark infringement cases have accounted for about 90 percent of all the criminal cases of IPR infringement in the past five years.