Legal Daily Online
Legal Daily Online
Apr 16 , 2025On April 11, the Guangdong Provincial Administration for Market Regulation announced that as of the end of February 2025, the number of in-force invention patents in Guangdong had surpassed 800,000, reaching 808,000.
Data shows that in recent years, invention patents in Guangdong have grown rapidly, with innovation resources continuously concentrated, laying a solid foundation for accelerating the cultivation and development of new productive forces.
From the perspective of scale and capability, Guangdong's number of in-force invention patents continues to lead the country, and the quality of its invention patents is above the national average. As of the end of February 2025, the number of in-force invention patents in the province surpassed 800,000; as of the end of 2024, the number of high-value invention patents reached 367,700, accounting for 46.4% of the total in-force invention patents—4.8 percentage points higher than the national average.
At the same time, the momentum of invention patent creation in strategic industrial clusters is strong, with eight industries leading the country in invention patent numbers. As of the end of February, the number of in-force invention patents in Guangdong’s strategic industrial clusters reached 561,200, accounting for 69.43% of the province's total in-force invention patents.
The dominant position of enterprises in innovation has become more prominent, with rapid growth in invention patents owned by specialized and sophisticated SMEs. As of the end of February, a total of 90,200 enterprises across the province owned 703,200 invention patents, accounting for 86.98% of the province's total in-force invention patents. Among the top ten enterprises nationwide (excluding Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan) in terms of in-force invention patents, six are from Guangdong. The number of in-force invention patents owned by specialized and sophisticated SMEs in the province increased by 26.81% year-on-year, significantly higher than the overall growth rate for enterprises (19.58%).
In addition, Guangdong has demonstrated the trend where high-quality creation promotes high-efficiency utilization. In 2024, there were 6,874 patent licensing events and 29,647 patent transfers across the province, with the total value of invention patent pledge registrations reaching 138.707 billion yuan. In the province’s total patent licensing, patent transfers, and patent pledge registrations, invention patents accounted for 66.90%, 41.51%, and 34.73% respectively—significantly higher than the proportion of invention patents among all effective patents (20.54%).
In recent years, the Guangdong Provincial Market Regulation (Intellectual Property) system has vigorously promoted the integration and mutual promotion of intellectual property and industrial development, continuously strengthening policy support, pilot demonstrations, and driving multiple new achievements in intellectual property work.
Guangdong, together with relevant departments, has issued multiple documents such as the "Several Measures on Intellectual Property Supporting the Implementation of Innovation-driven Development Strategy and Accelerating the Achievement of High-level Technological Self-reliance", stimulating innovation vitality. A total of 573 High-value Patent Cultivation and Layout Centers have been established; 1,243 national IP advantage demonstration enterprises created; and 865 enterprises have piloted the implementation of IP management standards for innovation. In addition, 43 IP collaborative operation centers for key industries and parks have been built.
Guangdong has also actively revitalized existing patents in universities and research institutes, driving 171 higher education institutions and research institutions in the province to complete inventory of 83,000 individual patents and 1,249 patent portfolios. Since 2021, Guangdong has won 870 awards in the past three sessions of the China Patent Award. It has promoted the pilot of patent open licensing, building a "1+N" open licensing release platform, effectively reducing patent transaction costs.
Guangdong has also actively developed IP finance to promote the realization of patent value. Since 2024 through the end of February this year, Guangdong's total patent pledge financing reached 299.2 billion yuan. The province has advanced the first Shenzhen-Hong Kong cross-border "N+1" IP securitization project and supported Shaoguan in launching the first IP securitization project framework for underdeveloped areas nationwide.
It is reported that next, the Guangdong Provincial Market Regulation (Intellectual Property) system will continue to strengthen high-value patent cultivation, optimize patent navigation services, and advance the industrialization of patented technologies. The province will promote enterprises to build IP management systems that conform to innovation management standards, cultivate a group of patent-intensive enterprises with core competitiveness, improve the market-oriented operation mechanism of intellectual property, deeply implement special actions for patent transformation and utilization, foster a batch of patent industrialization model enterprises, and enhance the efficiency of innovation results transformation. Further, Guangdong will advance IP pledge financing, insurance, and securitization to better serve the development of the real economy.