BEIJING — China saw over 1.04 million patent applications from January to October this year, up by 5.8 percent year on year, Shen Changyu, head of the State Intellectual Property Office, said on Dec 13.

Some 39,000 international patent applications under the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) were received during the period, increasing by 11.3 percent from the previous year, Shen said at an awards ceremony for China’s outstanding patented inventions and industrial designs.

More than 34,000 administrative cases on patents were handled in the ten months, a 19.8-percent yearly increase, while pilots were launched in six places, including Changsha and Shenzhen, to reform the management system of intellectual property and make it more efficient.

According to Shen, intellectual property has played a more prominent role as a basic guarantee for innovation and a strategic resource for development, as well as a core factor in the country’s competitiveness.

The ceremony saw 20 patented inventions and five designs receive the top awards. As of the end of 2016, products and projects related to the award winners had created 93.9 billion yuan ($14.19 billion) of sales revenue, 9.6 billion yuan in profit and 24.4 billion yuan in exports.