BEIJING, May.6 (China Daily) -- Shanghai intends to promote Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) protection after the Sino-US "Internet + Business" Innovation and Development Summit, reported Pudong Times, on April 26.

Comprehensive reform on IPR will be carried out this year, with the Intellectual Property Office in Shanghai's Free Trade Zone (FTZ) to take more responsibilities for administrative management and law enforcement of patents, trademarks, and copyrights.

Three major steps will be taken. An IPR exchange is going to be built by the end of the year, promoting IPR transformation and trade. Furthermore, an IPR public information service platform will be set up, providing citizens and companies with services relating to trademarks, copyrights, and patents. The city will also build an efficient mechanism for IPR protection and conduct a pilot in the FTZ.

China has already become a strong IPR empire with 2.7 million trademark applications applied for in 2015. However, China has shown a limited ability in applying for international patents with only 29,000 global patents acquired out of a total 210,000, in 2015.

Shanghai will advance IPR protection in the future, said Lu Guoqiang, director of Shanghai's Intellectual Property Office.