According to statistics by the Municipal Intellectual Property Office (IPO), Pingdingshan has applied for 679 patents in the first half of this year, up 127 percent from last year. During the period, inventive patents increase by 38.54 percent, while service invention patents rose by 135.57 percent.

Intellectual property (IP) is a term that refers ownership of creations of the mind. Under intellectual property law, owners are granted certain exclusive rights to a variety of intangible assets, such as musical, literary, and artistic works; discoveries and inventions; and words, phrases, symbols, and designs. Common types of intellectual property rights include copyrights, trademarks, patents, industrial design rights and trade secrets in some jurisdictions.

In 2011, IPO aims to build Pingdingshan into a demonstration city of intellectual property, enhance people’s awareness of IP and promote the development of IP. The IPO inspected 18 supermarkets with 40 thousand commodities to find 50 goods with improper patent marks and one fake patent product. The IPO has begun promoting the campaign of World Intellectual Property Day on April 26.

Edited by Tania Lee