East China's Jiangsu province unveiled its top 10 intellectual property investigations in 2011 at a press conference in Shanghai at the end of last month.

Most of the cases involved faked trademarks and copyright infringement, and included efforts by the courts, customs and police.

Last year, the provincial industry and commerce administration investigated more than 3,000 trademark infringements while copyright authorities looked into nearly 300 cases involving illegal publications and seized more than 2 million pirated copies.

The customs office at the provincial capital Nanjing announced 97 IP-related cases with total potential retail value of nearly 14 million yuan ($2.2 million).

A center of manufacturing and export, the province has increasingly stressed IP and leads the nation in the numbers of patent applications and granted patents.

Nearly 350,000 patent applications were filed in 2011, an increase of 47.7 percent over the previous year, including 84,678 for inventions. Nearly 200,000 patents were granted last year, up 44.4 percent.

More than 85,000 trademark applications were filed in 2011, with nearly 64,000 registered, including 240 international trademarks, bringing the total number in Jiangsu to 354,300.

The provincial government has also issued a series of trademark policies to boost home-developed brands.

Two cities in the province, Suzhou and Kunshan, have been honored "national copyrights pilot cities" and the Nanjing Xuzhuang Software Industry Base was named a "national copyright demonstration base".

Applicants from Jiangsu also filed for patents on 85 new plant varieties last year, with 24 of them granted, bringing the total to 295, ranking fifth in the nation.

Companies in the province also funded overall efforts in IP protection. The government's 2011 budget to promote its IP strategy was 12 million yuan ($1.9 million), 6.6 million yuan of which came from company contributions.

More than half of the patent applications in the province are filed by businesses. Nearly 16,000 companies in Jiangsu have now applied for patents, according to statistics from 2011, up 57.3 percent over the previous year.

Some 405 companies each filed more than 100 applications in 2011.

Sixty of the top patented products received awards last year as they generated a combined 11 billion yuan in revenue.

There are now 56 patent agencies in the province, which together handled nearly 150,000 patent applications last year. Five new agencies were established in 2011.

The provincial intellectual property office organized 18 IP training courses with nearly 2,500 participants. It also invested 1.8 million yuan to hold a three-month training program for patent agent candidates.

About 1,400 people have now participated in brand and geographical indication managers training courses organized by the provincial industry and commerce administration.

Jiangsu's IP authorities also held 28 events in 2011 with counterparts from the United States, Germany, Japan and Brazil, as well as Hong Kong and Taiwan.

(Source: China Daily)