BEIJING -- China is seeking to underline that it is serious about cracking down on piracy by setting up a special office to help the campaign against infringement of intellectual property rights and counterfeit products.
Filmmakers, both domestic and foreign, regularly complain that rampant piracy in China makes it a dangerous market to operate in. It means, for example, that movies have little opportunity to generate revenue streams other than box office takings because IPR theft is so widespread.
The office will be set up under the Ministry of Commerce, the government said in a statement.
"China faces an arduous task fighting IPR infringement as well as the production and sale of fake products, so greater administrative and law enforcement efforts are needed," it said.
Police were being encouraged to establish a cross-regional enforcement system to facilitate investigations.
A crackdown launched in November last year had seen positive results, and more than 28,000 criminal cases of infringement of IPR and selling shoddy goods had been cracked. Over 6,700 criminal gangs who were involved in wholesaling and marketing the goods were destroyed.