A news conference on IP development in the Yangtze River Delta region is held in Suzhou city. [Photo/WeChat account: Shanghai_IPA]

A news conference on intellectual property, or IP, development in the Yangtze River Delta region was held in Suzhou city in East China's Jiangsu province on April 20, where the IP departments of Shanghai and Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Anhui provinces shared information about their IP development and protection in 2022.

The news conference showed that the four regions have made remarkable achievements in IP creation, utilization, protection and management, and have played a leading role in China's IP development.

At the conference, the IP departments of the four regions signed two cooperation agreements to promote the high-quality development and integration of the patent agency industry and the series of IP competitions for college students in the Yangtze River Delta region.

The agreements aim to break down administrative barriers between regions, optimize resource allocation and coordinate information exchange, and to attract more young people to pay attention to and understand IP rights.

The conference also released a report on the development status of IP in key cities in the Yangtze River Delta region. The report showed that Shanghai, Hangzhou, Suzhou, Nanjing and Hefei rank first to fifth respectively in terms of comprehensive strength of intellectual property development.

Shanghai has maintained its position as a pioneer and forerunner in high-level reform and opening-up and becoming a strong IP-powered city. In 2022, the city authorized 36,800 invention patents, up 11.98 percent year-on-year, and filed 5,591 PCT (Patent Cooperation Treaty) international patent applications, up 15.76 percent. The number of high-value invention patents per 10,000 population in the city was 40.9.