BEIJING, March 10 (Xinhuanet) -- Chinese courts at various levels sentenced 2,963 people to jails for violating intellectual property rights (IPR) in a stepped-up fight launched in 2005, up 23.9 percent over the previous year.

    Various Chinese courts handled 3,567 criminal cases and 16,583 civil cases involving 3,567 cases of IPR violations last year, said Sun Huapu, spokesman of the Supreme People's Court, at a press conference held on Friday.

    Sun said 5,336 people were punished for IPR violations, up 30.66 percent from the previous year and 2,963 were imprisoned, showing an increase of 23.9 percent year on year.

    China's courts lowered the threshold for prosecutions of piracy cases at the end of 2004. Individuals who sell more than 5,000 pirated discs can be imprisoned for three to seven years.

    Sun said 1,117 cases involved manufacturing and sale of fake goods, and 1,926 cases involved illegal business operations.

    "These were not handled as IPR infringement cases because they involved other crimes that deserved more severe punishment," said Zhang Zhipei, Chief Justice of Intellectual Property Right Tribunal.

    Ren Weihua, Chief Justice of No. 2 Criminal Court under the SPC, said the rise of criminal IPR cases and the number of people punished was mainly due to the lowering of the threshold and an enhanced law enforcement.

    Over 65 percent of the civil IPR cases, which mainly involve companies suing other companies, were heard in courts in the provinces and municipalities of Guangdong, Beijing, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Shandong and Shanghai last year, Zhang Peizhi said. Enditem