Shen Changyu, head of the National Intellectual Property Administration (NIPA), said on Monday that strengthening the protection of intellectual property rights (IPR) is important to creating a good innovation and business environment.

Shen made the remarks during a corridor interview after the closing meeting of the second session of the 14th National People's Congress in Beijing.

In the past year, the protection of IPR has been further strengthened, as the central government has promoted a new round of institutional reform of IPR and revised rules for implementing the patent law, he said.

According to Shen, in 2023, the satisfactory ratio of IPR protection was raised to 82, a record high.

Last year, the number of valid invention patents owned by foreign applicants in China exceeded 900,000, and the number of trademark registrations was over 1.2 million. Also, the World Intellectual Property Organization's Global Innovation Index 2023 shows that China had 24 science and technology clusters among the top 100 in the world, ranking first for the first time.

In 2024, China will continue to improve the IPR protection system, improve the laws and regulations on IPR, come to the source to protect IPR and set up platforms and mechanisms for IPR protection.

(Cover: Shen Changyu during a corridor interview after the closing meeting of the second session of the 14th National People's Congress in Beijing, March 11, 2024. /CFP)