In a move to show its resolve to crack down on piracy, China has launched a nationwide hotline for reporting intellectual property rights (IPR) violations, the government said Aug. 29. The National IPR Protection Office said individuals or companies can call the hotline or submit on-line complaints to one of the 50 reporting and complaint centers that it has set up across the country.
The centers will handle complaints within five days after receiving them and the cases will be passed to appropriate government departments for action if they are found to be valid, China Daily reported.
China is a paradise for fake goods, from DVDs to handbags and clothes, much to the annoyance of its Western trading partners. The U.S. has been a particularly sharp critic of China on piracy, charging Beijing is not doing enough to combat a problem that is costing U.S. companies tens of billions of dollars a year.
China has announced a series of crackdowns, laws and other actions to rein in the nation's counterfeit industry but piracy is still widespread.
Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2006
