TIANJIN - A pilot intellectual property right (IPR) exchange opened Saturday in North China's port city of Tianjin, allowing investors to buy IPR shares and help small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to ease their financial woes.

The Tianjin Binhai Intellectual Property Exchange International, operated by the government-backed Northern Technology Exchange Market and the Tianjin IPR Service Center, is the first of its kind in China and is considered to be a "financial innovation" by the Tianjin municipal government.

China has no precedent for IPR exchanges, He Hua, deputy chief of China's State Intellectual Property Office (SIPO), said Saturday at the exchange's opening ceremony in Tianjin.

Institutes and individuals may use the exchange to buy IPR shares, much as they would in a normal fund market. Publicly traded IPRs mainly come from China's emerging industries, including the cultural and creative sectors.

"This is headline news for China's SMEs," said Tianjin's deputy mayor Cui Jindu.

According to Lin Yishan, president of the exchange, investors may use the exchange to directly buy and sell IPR shares, complete equity transactions between companies with IPR shares or conduct trades of financial and derivative products based on IPR