East China's Shanghai saw major development in its intellectual property sector last year and in the current year is continuing to make progress in IP – marking a great start for the city in the 14th Five-Year Plan period (2021-25).

The metropolis granted 32,900 invention patents in 2021, an increase of 35.74 percent year-on-year. It also received 4,830 PCT – Patent Cooperation Treaty – international patent applications, up 35.75 percent. By the end of 2021, the number of high-value invention patents per 10,000 people in Shanghai had reached 34.

Let's check out the development path of Shanghai in 2021:

In January, the number of high-value invention patents per 10,000 people was included in the outline of the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-25) of Shanghai.

In March, the Regulations of the Shanghai Municipality on Intellectual Property Protection were implemented. These clarified the goal of developing the city as an international IP protection highland  with efficient IP institutions, robust systems and a sound environment – as well as outlined working principles for the "strict protection, extensive protection, fast protection and equal protection" of IP.

In July, the Shanghai Intellectual Property Administration was reorganized into a bureau-level organization falling directly under the municipal government.

In September, the Shanghai Municipal Government and the World Intellectual Property Organization held a video conference.

In October, the 18th Shanghai International Intellectual Property Forum opened, with the theme of "Intellectual Property Protection and International Cooperation in the Era of the Digital Economy".

Furthermore, the Shanghai municipal government and the China National Intellectual Property Administration signed a protocol for cooperation and consultation – to jointly transform the city into a high-level reform and opening-up metropolis with IP as a key driver.

In addition, Shanghai issued Several Regulations of Shanghai Pudong New Area on Establishing a High-Level Intellectual Property Protection System and they came into effect on Dec 1.

In December, Shanghai published a guideline for the city's IP development from 2021 to 2035 – the first of its kind in China.