Children admire automatons at the opening of the World Robot Conference in Beijing's Daxing district, in 2019. [Photo by Wang Jing/China Daily]

Twelve thousand people were prosecuted for infringing on intellectual property rights last year, about 64 times the number in 1999, reflecting China's constant improvement in IPR protection, the head of the Supreme People's Procuratorate said.

IPR protection is a critical support for building an innovation-oriented country, and protecting IPR is protecting innovation, Zhang Jun, SPP procurator-general, told China Daily on the sidelines of the ongoing annual two sessions on March 5.

He said that the significant increase shows that legislation on IPR protection in China has been continuously improved and strictly implemented, and the comprehensive judicial protection of IPR has become more effective.

The Communist Party of China Central Committee, with Xi Jinping at its core, has always attached great importance to and made major decisions, arrangements and instructions for IPR protection since the 18th CPC National Congress in 2012, Zhang said. Procuratorial organs have also comprehensively performed their duties in strict accordance with the law to protect IPR and made pragmatic and fruitful efforts, he added.

From 2016 to 2020, more than 45,000 people were prosecuted for crimes of infringing on intellectual property rights. In November 2020, the SPP integrated its criminal, civil and administrative functions and set up an intellectual property rights procuratorial office to strengthen comprehensive protection of IPR.

Pilot projects with specialized teams to deal with IPR cases were implemented in 2020 in nine provincial regions, including Hainan province, Tianjin and Chongqing.

Zhang said IPR cases often involve cutting-edge technologies and a number of different fields and require professional knowledge.

"The specialized office can coordinate the use of criminal, civil and administrative procuratorial functions to effectively offer judicial protection to IPR," he said.

"It can also promote the establishment of high-quality IPR procuratorial teams and improve their working capacity, quality and efficiency," Zhang added.

Even in cases in which rights holders have not defended their rights in a timely fashion in criminal IPR cases, Zhang said procuratorates have fully implemented the policy of notifying involved parties of litigation rights and obligations. That facilitates the parties' participation in litigation activities as well as providing for supplementary evidence to be provided in a timely manner to safeguard their interests.

The establishment of the office has fully demonstrated the procuratorial organs' determination and confidence to resolutely confront IPR infringement crimes, Zhang said.

Last year, the number of people prosecuted for IPR infringement nationwide increased by 10.5 percent year-on-year.

Zhang said the increase does not necessarily mean that more such crimes occurred last year, but mainly shows that law enforcement and judicial departments have stepped up efforts in cracking down on such crimes.

Last year, the SPP and the Supreme People's Court issued a judicial interpretation on handling criminal cases of IPR infringement. The SPP also made improvements in the filing of cases and prosecution standards for infringement cases involving commercial secrets in conjunction with the Ministry of Public Security.