BEIJING, June 27 (Xinhua) -- Chinese authorities have decided to further beef up intellectual property rights (IPR) assistance, with focuses on the assistance to small firms and companies in exhibition and e-commerce sectors.

More will be done to help micro, small and medium-sized enterprises to safeguard their legal rights, and IPR assistance will also go to exhibition, e-commerce and other enterprises, according to a guideline released by the National Intellectual Property Administration.

The guideline also called for improving overseas assistance services, and encouraged universities and social organizations to participate in IPR assistance.

In recent years, China has set up 31 IPR protection centers, 20 fast rights-protection centers and 76 IPR assistance centers.