BEIJING -- Beijing will establish two intellectual property protection centers this year, according to the information office of the Beijing municipal government.

The two centers will mainly serve sectors of new information technology, high-end equipment manufacturing, new materials and bio-medicine, said Pan Xinsheng, deputy director of Beijing intellectual property office.

The centers are expected to shorten the patent review cycle from one year to six months.

In 2017, Beijing received 186,000 patent applications and 107,000 patent authorizations, up 4.75 percent and 4.5 percent respectively.

In the past five years, 192,000 cases of patent infringement and counterfeiting were investigated and punished in China, as well as 173,000 cases of trademark infringement and counterfeiting.