BEIJING — China has witnessed continuous growth in the number of invention patents over the past year, the country's top intellectual property regulator said on Jan 12.

In 2021, there were nearly 3.6 million valid invention patents in China, with 2.7 million held on the Chinese mainland. The average ownership of high-value invention patents reached 7.5 patents per 10,000 people, up 1.2 over the previous year, according to data released by the National Intellectual Property Administration (NIPA) at a press conference.

More enterprises applied for valid invention patents in 2021, with the number of Chinese companies holding such patents totaling 298,000, an increase of 52,000 over the previous year, said Hu Wenhui, spokesperson for the NIPA.

Hu added that Chinese companies held more than 1.9 million valid invention patents, up 22.6 percent year-on-year. Among them, high-tech enterprises held about 1.2 million valid invention patents, accounting for 63.6 percent of the total number of invention patents owned by domestic enterprises.

Last year also saw the expansion of patent and trademark pledging financing, which reached 309.8 billion yuan (about $48.7 billion), benefiting 15,000 enterprises, up 42 percent year-on-year, Hu said.

He noted that inclusive loans below 10 million yuan had benefited 11,000 enterprises, accounting for 71.8 percent of the total number of benefited enterprises, demonstrating the support for micro, small and medium-sized enterprises.

Information management, computer technology and medical technology were the three industries with the fastest growth in the effective number of invention patents in China by the end of 2021, growing 100.3 percent, 32.7 percent and 28.7 percent respectively from the previous year, Hu added.