China will continue to step up efforts to protect intellectual property, with the aim to make it easier and cheaper for innovators to safeguard their rights, the IPR chief said on March 12.

Shen Changyu, commissioner of the State Intellectual Property Office, told reporters on the sidelines of the ongoing two sessions that administrative law enforcement will be strictly carried out, particularly in the fields of social affairs, the internet and safety issues.

The number of patent disputes reached nearly 50,000 last year, up by 40 percent year-on-year, he said.

In 2015, China filed a record 1 million patent applications, the most by any country within a single year.

“China has already become a powerful economy in terms of intellectual property, but there is still space to better use innovations,” Shen said.

He added that his office will establish a scientific mechanism to distribute the profits from innovation to benefit more innovators.