Vice-Premier Wang Qishan (second left) asks about intellectual property rights protection at Hisense Group, a home appliance manufacturer, in Qingdao, Shandong province, on Friday. [Photo by Zi Binghui / for China Daily]

BEIJING - Vice-Premier Wang Qishan on Friday demanded that local authorities step up efforts to crack down on infringement of intellectual property rights in the next two months.

Wang made the remarks as he presided over a work conference held for the national anti-piracy campaign in Qingdao of East China's Shandong province.

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More than 100,000 cases of intellectual property rights infringement and counterfeits had been handled nationwide in the past five months, he said.

"The number of such cases has grown much bigger compared to that in prior similar crackdowns," said Wang Qian, professor with the intellectual property college of East China University of Political Science and Law.

"I sense that the scale of this campaign is unprecedented," he said.

The ongoing campaign takes aim at pirated publications, DVDs, software and other illegal products, as well as infringement of trademarks and patents.

Food, agricultural products and pharmaceuticals are also among the fields targeted in the campaign.

One "especially major" case, as specified by the Ministry of Public Security earlier this month, dated back to 2008. It involved two Shanghai-based production sites distributing more than 1,500 types of pirated operating system software, including Windows XP and Windows 7, according to a Xinhua News Agency report.

The two sites were destroyed in March following a three-month investigation, according to the ministry.