BEIJING, March 12 (Xinhua) -- Chinese courts at all levels concluded 288,000 cases related to intellectual property rights (IPR) of first instance in 2018, up 41.8 percent year on year, a work report of the Supreme People's Court (SPC) said Tuesday.

A tribunal for IPR-related cases was set up at the SPC last year to further strengthen the judicial protection of IPR, according to the report available to news media.

More efforts were put into the construction of the intellectual property courts in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, as well as 19 tribunals for IPR-related cases to improve the legal environment for technological innovation, it said.

Procuratorates across the country had also strengthened judicial protection of IPR last year, having supervised the handling of 32 major IPR-related cases, according to the work report of the Supreme People's Procuratorate on Tuesday.

A total of 8,325 people were prosecuted by procuratorates for criminal acts such as infringement of patent rights and trademark rights in 2018, up by 16.3 percent on a yearly basis, the report said.