BEIJING - The Supreme People's Court (SPC) of China has established two bases to study judicial protection of intellectual property rights (IPR) in the pharmaceutical industry, according to a statement issued on Monday.

The two bases are located at the Taizhou intermediate people's court, and Lianyungang intermediate people's court, both in Jiangsu Province, it said.

The statement urged the two bases to follow the latest movements and trends in pharmaceutical IPR, and conduct in-depth research into related legal issues and demands, in a bid to improve the quality of courts' judgements and policies in the area.

The SPC has also established other study and demonstration bases in grassroots courts to strengthen IPR judicial protection in all industries, calling on those courts to improve the effectiveness of their judgements in such cases and make innovations in their work mechanisms.

Chinese courts are handling increasing numbers of IPR cases as the country is advocating more awareness of the matter.

In 2011, people's courts at all levels accepted 59,612 IPR cases, an year-on-year increase of 38.86 percent.