BEIJING -- An increasing number of patents and trademark registrations is boosting social awareness of intellectual property rights, or IPR, in China, which will change the way that the world's second-largest economy grows, experts said.

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The number of trademark registration applications reached 1.42 million in 2011, a sharp rise from the 19,000 applications submitted in 1983, when the country's trademark law took effect, a national news magazine Outlook Weekly reported.

"The increasing number of patents will be conducive to IPR awareness in China," said Liu Chuntian, a professor?at Renmin University.

Liu said IPR protection is a basic tenet of the modern market economy, adding that China should carry out top-down reforms to further improve IPR regulations and laws.

The government's previous efforts to protect IPR include a strategic guideline published in 2008 that set a goal of making substantial progress in creation, application, protection and management of IPR by 2020.

China has only 21 of the world's top 500 brands, despite a large number of patents and trademark applications, the report said, adding that China's performance in IPR does not match the size of its economy.

However, home-grown technologies, including the TD-SCDMA and TD-LTE telecommunications interfaces, and emerging high-tech giants, such as Huawei and ZTE, indicate that China is starting to improve its capacity to innovate, the report said.