ZHENGZHOU - China's central region has made notable progress in intellectual property (IP) protection, said the country's top IP regulator on Wednesday.

As of June, the number of valid invention patents in China's central region had reached 618,000, marking a 19 percent increase from the previous year. Meanwhile, the number of valid registered trademarks had risen to over 7.04 million, up 11 percent year-on-year, according to the data released by the China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA) at a press conference in Zhengzhou, Henan Province.

China's central region comprises six provinces: Shanxi, Henan, Anhui, Hubei, Hunan, and Jiangxi. These provinces, though rich in labor resources, have recently seen several tech-driven emerging industries, such as electric vehicles, artificial intelligence and genetic breeding. The country has emphasized the need to accelerate the rise of its central region as part of its efforts to promote coordinated regional development.

CNIPA has supported the building of national IP protection pilot zones in the cities of Hefei, Zhengzhou, Wuhan and Changsha in the region to elevate the IP protection rule-of-law standards, said CNIPA spokesperson Guo Wen.

The region has established 13 national IP protection centers and five rapid IP protection centers. In the first half of this year, these centers processed 3,136 IP cases, offering businesses convenience, efficiency and cost-effective avenues for safeguarding IP rights.

Guo added that CNIPA has also provided free IP standardization data to 11 institutions in the region, including the Intellectual Property Research Institute under the University of Science and Technology of China, and China University of Geosciences (Wuhan).

In addition, efforts have been made to advance the establishment of platforms such as the rare earth industry IP operations center and the optoelectronic industry IP operations center.

The central provincial governments have implemented various measures, such as promoting collaboration between enterprises and universities to enhance patent commercialization and offering training assistance to support companies' global expansion.

Additionally, the governments have integrated IP achievements with the cultural and tourism industries to maximize the economic benefits generated by patents and improve people's income.