Ten law enforcement departments and agencies were honored here Wednesday by foreign-invested companies for their outstanding and exemplary efforts in handling counterfeiting and other intellectual property violations.

The 2005-2006 Awards for Best Cases of Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) Protection were granted by the Quality Brands Protection Committee (QBPC) under the China Association of Enterprises with Foreign Investment, a non-governmental organization representing the interests of more than 140 foreign-invested compaines.

Calling the awards "a positive message" from foreign-invested companies in China, Hugh Stevens, vice-president of Time Warner and a QBPC member, said China has made great improvements in fighting IPR infringement over the past few years.

The top ten cases were based on recommendations by heavyweight multinationals such as Adidas, Cisco Systems, Colgate-Palmolive, Unilever, Johnson&Johnson, Microsoft and Energizer. Each of the cases involved a value ranging from 400,000 to 15 million yuan.

The winning law-enforcement departments include public security bureaus, procuratorates, Customs and industrial and commercial administrations.

The QBPC was set up in March 2000 in answer to calls for a concerted and coordinated corporate-government effort to address counterfeiting in China. The annual awards were first granted in 2002.

Source: Xinhua