The first "Wen" International Intellectual Property Summit is held at the Hefei National High-tech Industry Development Zone, Anhui province, Oct 16. [Photo/hfst.hefei.gov.cn]

The first "Wen" International Intellectual Property (IP) Summit was held at the Hefei National High-tech Industry Development Zone, Anhui province, Oct 16. 

The forum attracted more than 200 delegates from around the world, including IP lawyers from the United States, Europe, Japan, South Korea, India, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam and Cambodia, as well as artificial intelligence (AI) and software experts from the US, and domestic experts in the smart manufacturing and AI industries. 

The event served as a platform for representatives to discuss ways of promoting IP's key role in driving innovative development of the smart manufacturing industry. 

As China's economy has shifted from high-speed growth to high-quality development, the creation, protection and application of IP will be strengthened. 

One of the first national high-tech zones, Hefei National High-tech Industry Development Zone has attached great importance to the protection of IP for regional economic growth. The zone has ranked top among the national high-tech zones for four consecutive years. 

With a focus on distinctive and dominant industries and key companies, the zone has made major progress in the IP sector, improving the creation, application, protection, management and service of intellectual property. 

The zone now has 11 national patent awards and 13 provincial ones, 198 IP demonstration companies at city level and above, and more than 100 IP service agencies. 

Thanks to the excellent innovation and entrepreneurship environment and strong government support, the zone has become a hot spot for global IP service providers. 

The zone was encouraged by the Ministry of Science and Technology in 2018 to advance into the global arena. In the future, it will continue the construction of such key platforms as a national laboratory of quantum information science and space-ground integrated information networks, speed up the transformation of technologies like quantum communications, intelligence voice and photovoltaic inverters. 

In addition, it will strengthen cooperation with enterprises and institutes in innovation to build five key platforms and 17 research institutes for industry technologies. It will also strive to develop a complete incubation system that covers nursery, incubator, accelerator, industrial base and cluster. It now boasts 37 co-working spaces, 22 incubators and seven accelerators. 

Moreover, the high-tech zone is going to push forward innovation with a focus on companies, guiding them to increase research and development investment and set up specific centers, with 22 key labs and 109 technology research centers at provincial level and above having already been established.