Alibaba, French fashion house Kering team up

Hangzhou-based e-commerce giant Alibaba and French luxury group Kering reached an agreement last week to work together against counterfeiting, both online and offline. The two sides have established a joint working group to share information. Alibaba will use its expertise in technology to identify counterfeiters who target brands in the Kering family, such as Gucci, Bottega Veneta and Balenciaga, and cooperate with Chinese law enforcement agencies to launch appropriate actions.

Xinhua News Agency

Jiangsu

Online pirates located, detained in Zhenjiang

The Zhenjiang police announced last week that they have solved the nation's largest online copyright infringement case. The police received reports from many movie-making companies late last year, claiming that pirated movies were available for online streaming and download at xiamp4.com. The police launched an investigation in November and seized three suspects. The website had released nearly 35,000 video works and made illegal revenue of more than 8 million yuan ($1.2 million) from advertising.

Cctv.com

Fujian

Shoe counterfeiters rip off Nike, 361 Degrees labels

Two men were recently sentenced to three years' imprisonment and fined 1.07 million yuan ($160,175) by the court of Youxi county for making and selling counterfeit shoes. They operated a shoe factory since November 2013. In April 2015, they started to make shoes bearing famous trademarks such as Nike and 361 Degrees without authorization. The law enforcement team found more than 3,000 pairs of counterfeit shoes at the factory with potential market value of more than 2 million yuan.

Youxi Court

Hebei

First-of-kind institute set up at Handan Polytechnic

An intellectual property institute was recently established in Handan Polytechnic College. It is the first vocational college-based IP institute and the first one jointly funded by the government, the college and companies in the province. The institute aims to develop high-level IP professionals for governmental departments and institutions.

Hebei.gov.cn

Sichuan

Industry targets outlined by science and tech authority

The provincial capital Chengdu will be home to more than 10,000 intellectual property-focused companies by 2020, according to plans for IP protection and utilization recently unveiled by the city's science and technology authority. By the same year, the local government will also have set up a fund of at least 2 billion yuan ($300 million) for IP operation and a risk capital pool of 5 billion yuan for IP credit loans.

News.chengdu.cn