With China's anti-monopoly law taking effect on Friday, the country's Supreme People's Court on Wednesday urged courts at all levels to carefully study and abide by the new rules.

Anti-monopoly cases were highly professional and complicated in that economic and legal issues were often mixed, and they had significant impacts on companies and industries, said the court.

Some articles in the law were comparatively abstract and principled, and courts might encounter many new things when it came to specific cases. Courts at all levels should research the law carefully and prepare themselves well ahead of its use, it said.

The circular said the anti-monopoly law would play an important role in protecting intellectual property rights, and it also belonged to the same category as the Anti-Unfair Competition Law.

In April, China put monopoly and various other competition conflicts to the field of intellectual property rights issues.

The law reflects the country's latest efforts to regulate monopoly activities and ensure fair market competition.

The introduction of the law was the first step in establishing a comprehensive, nationwide competition system, and further clarification concerning the law's application in certain key areas was expected.

These included rules against anti-competitive conduct, standards for administrative monopolies, enforcement mechanisms, and definition of abuses of intellectual property rights and penalties.

The law was passed in August last year.

(Xinhua News Agency July 31, 2008)