DALIAN - The past decade has seen a near-20-fold increase in the number of trademark agencies in China, revealed an official from the State Administration for Industry and Commerce (SAIC) on Sunday.

About 9,000 general agencies and 8,000 law firms in China are now engaged in intellectual property services related to trademarks, Zhang Wanxin, of the SAIC's trademark office, said while attending the 2013 China International Trademark Festival in Dalian.

The number of trademark agencies has skyrocketed in recent years, notably after state-level administrative approval for trademark agent eligibility was lifted in 2003 and law firms were allowed in the business without registration in 2010.

South China's Guangdong province is home to most trademark agencies, followed by Beijing, east China's Zhejiang province, Shanghai and its neighboring Jiangsu province, Zhang said.

A total of 1.5 million trademark applications are filed each year by these agencies, but the industry is still plagued by an excess of market players, low levels of professionalism and misconduct by some agencies, according to the official.