Chinese Government To Open Mediation Center For Online Piracy Disputes

China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) plans to establish a center that will deal with disputes over intellectual property and online copyright issues, reports Sina Tech (link via Google Translate).

Slated to launch later this year, the center will be part of the MIIT, which made the announcement at a meeting of the Internet Society of China and the Mediation Center of Internet Legal Professionals held in Beijing on January 17. The conference, convened to discuss the surge in intellectual property disputes and litigation, was attended by more than 100 people representing the Chinese government and court system, as well as Internet companies like Baidu, Sina and Taobao.

The MIIT hopes that technology companies will use third-party mediation and dispute resolution as a cost- and time-efficient alternative to litigation. Beijing’s High Court vice president Zhang Xuesong said that IP cases jumped by 17 percent from 2011 to 2012, of which 16 percent were related to online piracy. Last year, China tightened online piracy laws on how Web sites can be held liable for recommending unlicensed work from content including movies, music and books.