The State Intellectual Property Office of China (SIPO) received 2.8 million patent applications in 2015, including over 1 million cases of invention patent applications, said SIPO Commissioner Shen Changyu on Tuesday at a press conference.

“The number of invention patent applications reached 1.1 million in 2015, the largest number in the world for five consecutive years,” said Shen, adding that such applications have seen a 18.7 percent growth since 2014.

According to statistics, by the end of 2015, effective registered trademarks in China were up to 10.3 million, the most in the world for the 14th consecutive year. Copyright registration also set a new record of 1.3 million cases, a year-on-year increase of 35.9 percent.

Regarding issues that have arisen around intellectual property in e-commerce, Shen pointed out that SIPO and other relevant authorities have initiated a special operation to crack down on copyright infringement and counterfeit cases. The operation was started in 2010.

“More than 7,600 cased were handled in 2015,” Shen said.

However, Shen still urges concerned governmental departments to innovate and explore new ways of improving rights protection. Shen also pledged that SIPO will release new policies and measures for the protection of intellectual property as soon as possible in order to more thoroughly address the issue.