This Day, That Year

Item from March 15, 1996, in China Daily: Staff from the Technology Supervision Bureau of Beijing’s Chongwen district explain ways to distinguish fake leather shoes to employees at the Hongqiao Market.

Results of a recent nationwide survey indicate that legal rights and interests of consumers are far from being effectively protected . ...

China’s battle against intellectual property infringement and counterfeiting is finally making progress.

More than 1.7 million cases were registered and nearly 20,000 suspects arrested last year alone, according to the State Administration of Industry and Commerce.

About 241,000 of those cases involved items sold online, up by 65 percent year-on-year, prompting the government to shift its focus toward the booming e-commerce sector.

This year, the State Council, China’s Cabinet, released a guideline aimed at improving intellectual property rights in emerging fields, such as Internet Plus and big data.

In December, e-commerce giant Alibaba was put back on the “notorious markets” blacklist by US authorities for high levels of alleged piracy and counterfeiting. The move came just four years after the company was removed from the list. Alibaba has since vowed to stamp out piracy on its platforms, and in January, the company established an anti-counterfeit alliance that will use big data to weed out fake goods.