BEIJING, March 13 (Xinhua) -- China investigated 56,000 trademark rights infringement cases in 2010, an increase of 9.78 percent year on year, an official said on Sunday.

During the 11th Five-Year Plan period (2006-2010), a total of 265,000 cases concerning trademark violations had been investigated, an annual average of 53,000 cases, said Fu Shuangjian, vice director of the State Administration for Industry & Commerce.

Protecting trademark rights is crucial to carrying out national strategy on intellectual property rights (IPR) protection, and to promoting innovation, Fu told a press conference on the sidelines of the national parliamentary session in Beijing.

Fu said China would further clamp down on trademark violations and strengthen supervision over online shopping, targeting fake goods.

He added that the government's eventual goal was to establish a long-term protection mechanism instead of resorting to frequent crackdowns.