By IANS,
Beijing : Police in China have cracked over 28,000 cases during the course of a year-long crackdown on intellectual property rights (IPR) infringements and counterfeit goods, Xinhua reported.
The cases involved 18 billion yuan (about $3 billion).
If calculated in terms of the prices of the licensed products, the total amount of money involved could cross 500 billion yuan, a statement from the ministry of public security said Sunday.
According to the statement, since Nov 2010 to this October, police across the country have closed over 22,000 illegal sites illegally producing products and busted 6,700 criminal rings responsible for selling such goods, the statement said.
The police Sunday kicked off a special campaign in the northern city of Tianjin to destroy the items seized in the crackdown. This campaign will be launched in 182 Chinese cities.
It is estimated that over 25 million fake luxury goods, pirated books and discs, and counterfeit medicines and food will be destroyed, the statement said.