[JURIST] China has established a Judicial Court of Intellectual Property to handle piracy and intellectual property cases nationwide, according to a court spokesman speaking Friday at a Beijing news conference held during the annual meeting of the parliamentary National People's Congress. Read a press release on the court [in Chinese].The announcement comes amidst continuing complaints from other nations [US DOJ report] that the Chinese government has not done enough to prevent the illegal copying of DVD's, CD's, and other media produced by foreign companies, and on the heels of an announcement Thursday by China's Ministry of Commerce [official website, English version] of a series of new copyright laws [press release]. Sun Huapu added that China [JURIST news archive] has also created a website to bring unwanted publicity to defendants in high-profile piracy cases. According to Chinese governmental statistics, 741 people were convicted in 505 criminal piracy cases last year, along with 16,453 civil intellectual property rights cases, which was a 20 percent caseload increase from 2004.

Also at the news conference Friday, Jiang Zhipei [IHT report; personal website, in English], currently the Chief Justice of the Intellectual Property Rights Tribunal of the Supreme People's Court [official website in Chinese], dismissed the complaints of foreigners critical of China's intellectual property safeguards, noting that it was their responsibility to bring cases to court, yet only 5 percent of all Chinese IP cases last year were brought by foreign companies. AP has more.