In response to a call from the central government about intellectual property right (IPR) protection and to better assist enterprises with the potential risks of going public and the IPR-related investigations, the East Lake High-tech Development Zone (also known as Optics Valley of China, or OVC) recently issued 10 items to strengthen IPR protection. 

Compared with IPR protection measures released by the valley in 2019, the upgraded 10 items have filled many policy gaps and focus on ever fierce IPR-related conflicts before and after enterprises go public. 

The 10 items are designed to resolve problems, such as IPR risk management, information release, malicious prosecutions from competitors, and other issues before the enterprise is successfully listed. In addition, the items also target overseas IPR conflicts, and the low efficiency of patented technology transfer in micro, small and medium-sized enterprises.

There are many innovative practices in the items, such as encouraging firms for the first time to buy overseas IPR insurance so as to ease burdens once they are involved in IPR cases, encouraging IPR securitization and the exploration of new ways to finance through IPR, and establishing an IPR protection community. 

By 2020, the Optics Valley had authorized over 25,000 patents, among which the number of invention patents had exceeded 10,000 for the first time, occupying 71.5 percent of Wuhan's total.