The China Import and Export Fair (hereinafter the Canton Fair), which came to a close on May 5th, received 476 complaints for infringement, a decrease of 16.05% as compared with the same period last year.
According to the statistics, 315 enterprises were determined of suspected infringement, a decrease of 4.83%. In recent years, the number of infringing cases in the Canton Fair declined at the average annual rate of 10%.
The Canton Fair started to explore intellectual property protection in 1992, which is one of the earliest fair in China to do so. Since 1999, the presence of specialists and working on-the-spot has become a working practice.
The Canton Fair also increased the degree of punishment. Starting from 2002, related exhibitors would receive the punishment including seizure of infringing goods and temporary or permanent cancellation of exhibition qualifications. The strategic and cooperative agreement between China Foreign Trade Center and Guangdong Intellectual Property Office will further promote the intellectual property protection in Canton Fair.
