GUANGZHOU, April 26 (Xinhua) -- One hundred and eighty-two enterprises have violated intellectual property rights at the Canton Fair in Guangzhou this year, according to Zhang Jiaqing, director of the IPR protection center at the Canton fair.

This year's figure of 182 offending enterprises is down 16.7 percent from last year.

Canton fair, China's largest export commodities fair, is regarded as a showcase of China's progress on IPR protection and attracts close attention from overseas IPR holders.

Before the opening of this session of the Canton fair, the organizers had revised regulations on IPR protection, increasing the punishments for exhibitors found to be violating intellectual property rights.

"Any exhibitor found to have infringed on any designs or intellectual property rights will be banned from participating for the next four or six events," said Zhang.

Fifty of China's major export enterprises endorsed a proclamation at the fair on Thursday, vowing to refrain from infringing on intellectual property rights (IPRs), especially those of their foreign counterparts.

"We promise not to pirate patents and not to exploit trademarks and copyrights. We will also promise not to make, export or import products which may infringe on intellectual property rights," announced Huang Xiaoming, a representative of the 50 enterprises who inked the proclamation.

There are more than 14,000 companies exhibiting at the fair this year.