NANJING - The number of cases handled by Chinese courts nationwide regarding intellectual property rights (IPR) disputes and violations surged in 2011, a spokesman for the Supreme People's Court (SPC) said Tuesday.

In 2011, local courts at all levels across the country received 59,612 new IPR-related civil cases and concluded the trials of 58,201 cases, up by 38.86 percent and 39.51 percent, respectively, from the previous year, SPC spokesman Sun Jungong said at a press conference held by the SPC in the city of Suzhou in east China's Jiangsu province.

Moreover, local courts received 5,707 new criminal cases involving IPR issues, an increase of 42.96 percent on a year-on-year basis, Sun said.

According to Sun, cases regarding patents, trademarks and copyrights all rose rapidly, and the number of Internet-related IPR disputes also increased.

Furthermore, a total of 1,137 cases of unfair competition were filed with courts, Sun said, calling on the courts to carefully deal with such cases to ensure free competition and fair play in the market.

Also on Tuesday, the SPC published 10 major IPR-related cases and 50 typical cases in this regard handled by the country's courts in 2011, including one that involved a court ruling against taobao.com, a popular online shopping site in China, for its joint liability in trademark infringement.

The cases can be taken as references for IPR holders to effectively protect their rights as well as for courts nationwide to properly apply the law, said Jin Kesheng, a senior SPC judge.