A national-level Intellectual Property Court is expected to open as another effective step to safeguard IP rights, China's top court released on Saturday.

The IP Court, as a division under the Supreme People's Court, is responsible for handling civil and administrative patent-related appeal cases, according to the country's top court.

It means litigants who disagree with patent-related rulings made by intermediate courts at city and prefecture levels or made by IP-dedicated courts could appeal to the top court directly instead of going to provincial high courts, it added.

"Such a change in the patent-related litigation procedures is to help prevent inconsistency of legal application and improve the quality and efficiency of trials," said Luo Dongchuan, chief judge of the IP Court.

He made the remark at a press conference, held by the State Council Information Office on Saturday.

"We hope the IP Court can promote innovation-driven strategy and improve the unified application of law to patent cases, as well as provide better judicial protection for IP rights," said Luo, also the top court's vice-president.

Preparation work for the IP court has been all set, and it is going to be unveiled and put into operation soon, he added.

In October, the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, the national top legislature, adopted a resolution on the IP appeal procedure at its bimonthly session. Since then, the top court has began preparing the structure of the IP Court.

China has put IP protection higher on its development over the past decades, and in recent years, it has increased efforts to fight IP infringements to effectively safeguard technological innovation.

While deepening the policy of opening-up and reform, China also has witnessed a rapid growth of IP cases. For example, Chinese courts heard 213,480 IP cases in 2017, 40.4 percent more than in 2016, and double the number in 2013.