QINGDAO has found 199 infringements of intellectual property rights (IPR) since a special campaign to protect IPR in imports and exports was launched in November last year.

    The infringements were in products worth more than 1.5 million yuan involving well-known brands such as Nike and Toyota.

    The campaign, which inspected 763 companies, focused on exports to Africa, the Middle East and South Africa.

    Three IPR infringements were uncovered in exports to Africa, involving 150,000 items.

    Qingdao registered US$1.6 billion in exports to Africa last year, a year-on-year increase of 28.5 percent. The exports from 1,814 companies were mainly fabrics, mechanical equipment, home appliances and electrical goods.

    (Martin Li, Zhou Jianliang)