BEIJING, Nov. 13 (Xinhua) -- China will start a pilot program to extend intellectual property rights (IPR) education to primary and middle schools, China's IPR watchdog said on Friday.

The pilot program was mapped following the country's IPR strategy from 2014 to 2020, said a notice jointly issued by the State Intellectual Property Office and the Ministry of Education.

In the first batch, 30 to 50 pilot schools will be chosen. By 2020, China will set up 100 such schools thorough IPR education.

It aims to improve the national IPR awareness through "educating a student, then a family and a society," it said.

The chosen schools will receive fees, training and overseas exchanges.

China has been working to protect IPR. As of Monday, a Beijing court specializing in IPR, China's first, has accepted around 8,000 cases since November last year.

Two more IPR courts were set up in Guangzhou and Shanghai in December last year, to deal with cross-regional civil and administrative lawsuits regarding patents, new plant varieties, integrated circuit layout design and technological knowledge.

Chinese courts hear about 110,000 IPR cases annually and this is expected to increase.