The 14th Five-Year Plan period (2021-25) for East China's Shanghai city recently set new development targets for the city's intellectual property sector -- with the aim that by 2025 the number of high-value invention patents per 10,000 people in the population should reach about 30 -- the Wenhui Daily reported.

Estimates are that the number of high-value invention patents per 10,000 residents in Shanghai in 2020 was around 20.

Under China's Patent Law, patents are divided into invention patents, utility model patents and design patents, with the level of invention patents widely regarded as an important index to measure the level of innovation in a region.

The number of overall invention patents per 10,000 people in Shanghai reached 60.2 last year, increasing for 15 consecutive years.

"High-value invention patents make up the patents that are more technical, more innovative and more recognized by the market stand out," Shan Xiaoguang, dean of the Shanghai International College of Intellectual Property at Tongji University, told the Wenhui Daily in an interview.

According to Shan, the high-value patent highly relies on the innovation ability of an entity applying for a patent, so the cultivation of innovation ability must be emphasized.

In the opinion of Zhang Yongzhong, deputy director of Shanghai Intellectual Property Administration, or SIPA, a key indicator to be recognized in a high-value invention patent is that it must be useful.

He told the newspaper in an interview that to maintain a patent, the patent holder needs to pay a certain patent maintenance fee. If the holder is willing to continue to "pay" for a patent, the patent can really create value.

Patent pledge financing is an effective way to realize a patent's value. As a result, a patent that can gain pledge financing is also considered to be of high value, Zhang added.

According to Zhang, SIPA will set up a number of special schemes to encourage enterprises to conduct patent pledge financing and guide businesses to apply for PTC -- the Patent Cooperation Treaty, WIPO's system of registering international patents -- patents.