BEIJING — China solved a total of 171,708 intellectual property rights (IPR) cases in 2016, said Tao Kaiyuan, vice president of the Supreme People's Court (SPC) on Monday.

The number is a 20.86-percent increase from 2015, while the SPC dealt with 177,705 IPR cases in 2016, up 19.07 percent from the previous year.

Those included the "Qiaodan" case, which was listed by the SPC as one of the top ten IPR cases in China in 2016 for other courts to refer to.

The case featured Michael Jordan suing Qiaodan Sports, a Chinese sportswear and shoes manufacturer, for unauthorized use of his name and identity, as the brand name is the Chinese transliteration of the name "Jordan."

The SPC also released an outline on the judicial protection of IPR between 2016 and 2020 on Monday, putting forward eight goals, such as establishing a high-quality cadre of judges, as well as a long-term mechanism for international judicial cooperation on IPR.

According to Tao, the SPC will look to significantly improve its abilities in judicial protection during the five years, and will provide more experience for the international efforts on IPR protection.