BEIJING, March 31 (Xinhua) -- Chinese police have uncovered over 6,700 Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) infringement cases in the past five years, involving 3.5 billion yuan (437.5 million U.S. dollars), and have broken a number of international criminal networks.

    According to a forum held in Shanghai on IPR criminal protection on Friday, Chinese police have detained more than 9,300 suspects for intellectual property rights violations.

    The forum, convened by the Ministry of Public Security and the National Protection of IPR Working Group Office, will focus on the organized and international IPR violations and boost cooperation between countries and between law enforcing departments and industry sectors.

    Officials and experts from Interpol, the International IPR organization, the European Union, the United States, Canada, France, Germany and Japan attended the meeting.

    China has actively drawn up IPR-related laws and regulations to improve the IPR criminal enforcement legal system, said Zheng Shaodong, assistant minister of Public Security.

    China has carried out a number of campaigns to crack down on counterfeiting and piracy, he said.

    He also said that Chinese police have worked with international organizations to exchange information on IPR violation, investigate IPR-related cases and provide legal assistance to crack down on international rings.

    Figures from the Ministry of Public Security show that police uncovered more than 32,000 IPR-related cases and detained more than 8,000 suspects for IPR violation in 2005. Enditem