China owned about 4.02 million of domestic valid invention patents by the end of last year, up 22.4 percent year-on-year, the country's top intellectual property regulator said on Tuesday.

Hu Wenhui, deputy head of the China National Intellectual Property Administration, told a news conference that with this achievement, China became the first country in the world to hold more than 4 million valid domestic invention patents.

"High-value patents accounted for over 40 percent of the total, which shows that China has been a veritable IP power and has consistently contributed to global innovation," he said. The number of China's domestic valid patents does not include those held in Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan.

Hu said that national high-tech enterprises, as well as small and medium-sized tech companies, hold 2.13 million of these patents, up 24.2 percent year-on-year. He added that self-innovation has provided momentum for the high-quality development of the entities.

Meanwhile, the number of valid domestic invention patents issued in the Yangtze River Delta, the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region and the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area has also been increasing rapidly, "fueling a strong engine to promote local industrial economic development," Hu said.

To better stimulate the vitality of innovation, the administration will speed up patent reviews and increase efforts to advance the transformation and application of patents, he added.

caoyin@chinadaily.com.cn