China Customs Earns Int'l Award for IPR Protection

On June 14, 2006, the International Anti Counterfeiting Coalition (IACC) awarded "2005 global anti-counterfeiting governmental organization award" to the Chinese customs, in order to affirm the achievements of the Chinese customs in intellectual property right (IPR) protection and its open and transparent working style. This is the first world-class award for the IP law enforcement unit of the Chinese government.

IACC is a non-governmental organization specializing in IPR protection and anti-counterfeiting missions throughout the world. It was established in 1901 with the headquarters in Paris, France. In an effort to encourage anti-counterfeiting practices in all nations and regions, IACC has started to establish a series of awards in recent years to commend governmental law enforcement units, enterprises, non-governmental organizations and the press that have contributed remarkably in the field of enforcing IPR protection. The Chinese customs and Italian customs distinguished themselves out of governmental organs coming from ten countries contending for this award and finally won the award.

The Chinese customs has begun to carry out IPR protection efforts in the import and export areas since 1994. Up till 2005, it investigated and solved 5,571 cases of IPR infringement in various kinds of import and export goods, with the value reaching 730 million RMB (US$ 91.25 million). After China joined WTO, the number of infringement cases that Chinese customs investigated and busted grew at an annual rate of 30 percent.