Also SIPO will intensify efforts this year to identify people who tend to submit fake innovations for PCT to cash in on their claims in advertisements.

Responding to the doubts raised by some foreign countries on the quality of authorized IPR application in China, Tian said SIPO has set up a special computerized supervision system to help block excessive junk applications. It can reject similar or repeat applications.

The country is alert in IPR for the big two events, the Beijing Olympic Games and the 2010 Shanghai World Expo, too, he said.

The Beijing Intellectual Property Administration (BIPA) will open an IPR information website on April 1 to spread Olympic and IPR knowledge among the public. People can report IPR violations on the Beijing Olympics either on the website or dial the hotline 12315 to report trademark infringement cases, BIPA official Zhang Boyou said.

And the National Copyright Administration of China will strengthen supervision across the country to safeguard the copyright for songs and music related to the Olympics, spokeswoman Duan Yuping said.

Shanghai, too, is intensifying efforts to deal with IPR infringements for the 2010 World Expo.

The central and municipal governments have released a number of IPR regulations, which observers say are unprecedented for a single event in China. The move is aimed at encouraging worldwide exhibitors to display their innovative works at the expo.

So far, 194 nations and international organizations have confirmed participation in the Shanghai World Expo, the first to be held in a developing country. More participants are expected to join them. The world expos have served as a platform to showcase or promote many a great invention such as telephone, television, elevator and hamburger.

"IPR is the foundation of a successful World Expo," said Zhou Hanmin, deputy director of the Bureau of Shanghai World Expo Coordination Committee. "That's why China's State Council (the country's cabinet) passed the Regulation on the Protection of World Expo Logo Marks in a short period of four months and seven days" in October 2004.

"Since then, public awareness on IPR protection has risen, measures against infringement activities intensified, and the regulation produced very good results," Zhou said.