Customs' arrests

The customs of 12 western provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities in China have seized a total of 5,283 smuggling cases and arrested 1,812 suspects in the past five years, said officials at the Symposium on Customs' Support to the Development of Western China held on October 18.

Director of the General Administration of Customs Mou Xinsheng said Customs are the administrative law enforcement departments for import and export, and also part of the criminal law enforcement authority.

Memorandum of understanding

The American Chamber of Commerce in China has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Beijing's Chaoyang District to establish the "Chaoyang Model Anti-Copyright and Piracy-Free Zone."

The zone is the first government-industry initiative of its kind in the intellectual property rights (IPR) field in China. It aims to protect the rights of intellectual property owners for the benefit of producers, distributors and retailers of legitimate copyrighted products.

Pharmaceutical conference

The forum "Use of Intellectual Property to Encourage Pharmaceutical Innovation" opened on October 16.

Organized by the International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers and Associations, the R&D-Based Pharmaceutical Association Committee of the Chinese Association of Enterprises with Foreign Investment, and the United States, the European and the Japanese Patent Offices, the two-day forum highlights the IPR enforcement issues confronting the pharmaceutical industry in China.

(China Daily 10/23/2006 page9)