Zhejiang authorities held a press conference about the province's latest achievements in protecting intellectual property rights in Hangzhou, the provincial capital, on Oct 13.

Officials at the conference revealed that Zhejiang ranked first in the national examination of IPR protection in general, as well as in the effectiveness of relevant regulations.

On April 26, Zhejiang authorities launched a digital system named "Zhejiang Intellectual Property Rights Online". The system is used for IPR-related applications, financing, evaluation, protection, early warnings, management, searches, and consulting.

The system has so far amassed 43,600 registered users and over one million visits. A total of 126 legal assistance institutes and 88 mediator institutes related to IPR are involved on the system and helped handle 870 IPR cases of various kinds.

Zhejiang's market regulators have handled 14,000 IPR cases this year, up 10.42 percent from the previous year.

The total amount of patent licensing in Zhejiang was 291,000 this year, up 18.9 percent year-on-year. The increase was believed to be partly attributed to the stronger IPR protection seen in the province.

The satisfaction rate among enterprises in terms of their evaluation of the government's IPR-related policies now stands at 84.5 percent.