BEIJING, April 26 -- China saw progress in intellectual property rights (IPR) protection in 2022, the country's top market regulator said on Wednesday.

Last year, a slew of laws and regulations were rolled out in an effort to optimize the legal system for IPR protection, Gan Lin, deputy head of the State Administration for Market Regulation, told a press conference.

In the meantime, market regulators at various levels handled about 44,000 trademark and IPR violation cases in 2022, involving 1.62 billion yuan (about 233.98 million U.S. dollars), Gan said.

A total of 27,000 IPR infringement and fake and inferior commodities sales criminal cases were cracked last year, while 27,000 people were prosecuted by law enforcement and justice departments, according to Gan.

Gan also noted that the administration will further improve the legal system for IPR, strengthen IPR protection, and steadily promote high-quality development of intellectual property initiatives.