Guizhou protects and applies intellectual property

In recent years, Southwest China's Guizhou province has adhered to a strategy of enhancing the province's high-quality development through intellectual property (IP) protection and application.

By June this year, Guizhou had 13,856 valid patents for invention, an increase of 16.5 percent year-on-year, 311,768 valid registered trademarks, an increase of 31.93 percent, and 405 geographical indications.

In 2020, Guizhou received 126,000 trademark registration applications, an increase of 40.2 percent year-on-year, with the growth rate ranking second in China. Guizhou also added 47 geographical indications that year.

By enhancing IP value evaluations, IP pledge and financing services, risk management of IP financing, and financing guarantees for IP pledges, Guizhou has allocated a lot of resources to help enterprises reduce financing costs. By the end of 2020, Guizhou's banking institutions had offered 5.51 billion yuan ($850.76 million) in IP pledge loans.

IP pledge is a new financing method that allows enterprises to apply for loans by pledging IPs such as patents and trademarks. In 2020, Guiyang's 173 patents were pledged for 670 million yuan in loans and 206 trademarks were pledged for 850 million yuan in loans.

Guizhou has also applied legal, administrative, economic, technological, and social governance methods to protect IPs. In 2020, the province handled 2,681 IP-related cases, an increase of 59.6 percent, and 2,118 cases were closed.