The city of Suzhou in Jiangsu province has been included in first batch of cities in the national pilot reform of intellectual property rights protection.
In the next year, Suzhou and five other pilot cities in the country will launch comprehensive reform on intellectual property rights protection in the country’s one-year pilot reform which is intended to promote the nation's capacity for innovation.
The pilot reform will be carried out in regions that have been pioneers in intellectual property rights applications and enforcement, including patents, trademarks and copyrights, and have made enormous achievements in innovation, or have national innovation demonstration zones.
According to the guideline on the reform, efforts will include a comprehensive and effective management system of intellectual property rights, which will better serve the public and promote innovation-driven development.
The pilot reform will be extended further after a joint review by those departments under the State Council. The State Intellectual Property Office accepted 1.1 million patent applications in 2015, a year-on-year increase of 18.7 percent. The number ranked first in the world for highest number of patents accepted. The office granted 263,000 patents in 2015, 100,000 more than the previous year.
