BEIJING - China's top court is drafting a judicial interpretation to protect online intellectual property rights, which is expected to be released in January at the earliest.

Kong Xiangjun, director of the third civil tribunal of the Supreme People's Court, said on Tuesday that disputes in online copyright infringement have taken up half of the copyright cases this year, due to a boost in information exchanges on the Internet.

Kong said the upcoming judicial interpretation will try to strike a balance between protecting intellectual property rights and facilitating the continued healthy growth in China's online community.

"While strengthening the protection of online innovation and creation, it is also important to avoid overprotection, which may harm the development of the Internet industry in the long run," he said.

Sun Jungong, spokesman of the Supreme People's Court, said the number of intellectual property right cases has surged rapidly, and cases of first instance received by courts at all levels last year has tripled compared with the number 10 years ago.

In the first 10 months this year, the number of intellectual property right infringement cases exceeded 52,000, of which 60 percent were copyright infringement disputes.

The number of intellectual property rights cases marked a 42 percent rise year-on-year, exceeding 50,000 for first time.

China currently has four laws and 19 regulations related to intellectual property rights protection, covering patents, trademarks and other fields.

Liu Chuntian, director of the Intellectual Property Institute of Renmin University of China, said that current laws and regulations are already sufficient in fighting online copyright infringement.