Source: Xinhua

01-04-2009 15:40

By Xinhua writer Guo Likun

Legal experts said on Saturday that this week's conviction of 11 people who were involved in an organized piracy ring involving Microsoft showed China's resolve in global intellectual property rights (IPR) protection.

The Futian Court in the southern city of Shenzhen on Wednesday sentenced 11 people who violated Chinese criminal and copyright laws to make pirated Microsoft software and distribute copies to Australia, Canada, Germany, the United States and other countries.

The three principal offenders face stiff sentences of six and a-half years, five years and three and a-half years respectively, the stiffest sentences from Chinese courts for IPR infringement.

Li Shunde, a law scholar who heads the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences Intellectual Property Research Center, told Xinhua on Saturday: "This [case] shows China's sincerity in implementing intellectual property law enforcement."

In an official statement from its Redmond, Washington headquarters in the United States shortly after the sentencing, Microsoft said it "greatly appreciates" the work done in China in "taking strong enforcement action against global software counterfeiting syndicate.

"Thanks to the actions of the Chinese government, we have seen a significant improvement in the environment for intellectual property rights in China," Fengming Liu, vice president of Microsoft Greater China Region, said in the statement.

According to the court, ringleaders Wang Wenhua, Zhang Da'an and Che Tingfeng organized a group to use sophisticated facilities to replicate Windows XP Professional, Windows XP and Office 2003 as well as holograms of Microsoft's Certificate of Authenticity. They sold fake software products not only in the Chinese mainland, but also in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region and other countries, via online distribution.

Wang Jun, an IPR scholar at the Shanghai-based Fudan University, said, "Our eyes shone as we heard the verdicts. I and my fellow researchers sensed that China meant business this time," Wang said.