Beijing, Mar 12 (IANS): Chinese courts tried a total of 288,000 cases related to intellectual property rights (IPR) in 2018, 41.8 per cent more than in 2017, officials said on Tuesday.

State Intellectual Property Office head Shen Changyu revealed this data in a report he presented during the second session of the country's National People's Congress, reports Efe news.

"A tribunal for IPR-related cases was set up at the SPC (Supreme People's Court) last year to further strengthen the judicial protection of IPR," the report said.

"More efforts were put into the construction of the intellectual property courts in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou as well as 19 tribunals for IPR-related cases to improve the legal environment for technological innovation."

Shen also said that courts across the country handled 32 major IPR-related cases and prosecuted a total of 8,325 people in 2018 for criminal offences including, infringement of patent rights and trademark rights, an increase of 16.3 per cent from 2017.

The inadequate protection of IPR has been, along with the trade deficit, the main argument used by US Donald Trump to justify his trade war with China.

Chief Justice Zhou Qiang stressed during the legislative session that the SPC processed 34,794 cases in 2018 and issued sentences on 31,883 of them, which represents a year-on-year increase of 22.1 per cent and 23.5 per cent, respectively.