During the seven special crackdowns last year, security departments filed 863 cases and arrested 988 suspects, while the courts handled 6,441 IPR cases. Patent, customs and industry and commerce departments dealt with 17,243 such cases involving nearly 1 billion yuan ($129.5 million).

Liu Zhengang, head of the Beijing IPR bureau, said that in the capital, for example, pirate DVD vendors have now been forced underground, where they were once able to operate openly and in public.

In another development, Supreme People's Court Vice-President Cao Jianming called on Western countries to choose dialogue instead of confrontation when dealing with IPR-related trade disputes and differences.

In December and April, the apex court and Supreme People's Procuratorate jointly promulgated two judicial interpretations to impose heavier criminal punishments for IPR violations.

"China has enacted more extensive accusatory imputations toward IPR violations than many other countries," Cao said.

"The extent and scope of judicial punishments are severe, and proceedings are complete too."

Cao made the remarks on Thursday in Shanghai during a seminar on movie copyright protection, which was attended by more than 60 senior IPR judges from across China and Motion Picture Association of America.

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