BEIJING, April 21 (Xinhua) -- Guangzhou Customs officers destroyed more than 25,000 counterfeit brand-name products including Nokia, Coach, LV, Prada and Gucci on Wednesday, a move demonstrating local government's determination to root out intellectual property right (IPR) infringements.

    "The province has always taken action against any ventures related to IPR violations and the province will gear up efforts this year," said Tang Yi, deputy director of the Guangdong provincial IPR office, at a press conference on Thursday.

    Several provincial departments including those related to the public security, industry and commerce administration, copyright and patent administration, quality supervision, customs, cultural administration, food and drug administration and foreign trade hadjoined hands for the crackdown on IPR infringement and protection of IPR development, Tang was quoted by China Daily as saying.

    Citing statistics, he said the province put on record 426 casesrelated to the production and sales of fake products or IPR violations in 2005.

    The cases involved a value of 590 million yuan (72.7 million U.S. dollars) and 1,207 suspects were seized.

    "Guangdong is one of the nation's leading suppliers of audio and visual products, and the IPR protection there has been particularly challenging," he said.

    The province dispatched a law enforcement force of more than 39,000 people in the year, checking more than 22,000 CD shops and closed down 1,029.

    About 40 million pirated CDs were seized and destroyed in the province last year. Enditem