BEIJING — China has approved the establishment of two new centers to reduce the processing time and cost of intellectual property rights (IPR) protection, the National Intellectual Property Administration (NIPA) said on April 30.

The new centers will be set up in the cities of Zibo and Dezhou in East China's Shandong province, respectively. They will provide more efficient IPR protection services for enterprises in the industries of new materials and biomedicine, according to the administration.

By setting up IPR protection centers in cooperation with local governments, the NIPA launched the collaborative protection of IPR in 2016, aiming to solve difficulties related to the collection of evidence and the duration and cost of investigations.

To date, China has 43 IPR protection centers (including those under construction) nationwide.