BEIJING - The Ministry of Commerce (MOC) said Wednesday China reported fewer cases of making and selling counterfeits from January to April this year due to consistent law enforcement activities.

Chang Xiaocun, director of the Market Order Department with the MOC, said commerce law enforcement departments investigated and punished those involved in 78,773 cases of intellectual property rights (IPR) infringement and counterfeits, or an average of 645 cases per day, in the first four months of this year.

During the period, people dealing in fake goods worth 1.81 billion yuan ($287.3) were probed in a concerted effort to crack down on copyright infringement and counterfeiting, Chang said.

"We have continued our crack-down efforts since we launched a special law enforcement campaign last year," he said, adding, "the number of counterfeits is now declining."

The MOC official did not provide the figure of the same period of last year, however, or make an annual comparison.

He said government departments will continue to clamp down on violations pertaining to trademarks, copyrights and patents while strengthen supervision over the sales of medicine, cosmetics, farming materials and auto parts.

China has stepped up its fight against intellectual property rights violations in recent years.

According to data from the Supreme People's Court, Chinese local courts took up 59,612 new IPR-related civil cases, and concluded 58,201 cases last year, up 38.86 percent and 39.51 percent year-on-year, respectively.

Local courts also handled 5,707 new criminal cases involving IPR issues last year, an increase of 42.96 percent from previous year.