BEIJING — China's intellectual property (IP) industry has seen a year-on-year increase in its number of service agencies and practitioners, the country's top IP regulator said on Dec 22.

By the end of 2020, China had 73,000 IP service agencies, up 9.3 percent from the previous year, and 865,000 IP practitioners, up 5.6 percent year-on-year, according to a report issued by the National Intellectual Property Administration.

The revenue of these IP service agencies exceeded 225 billion yuan (about $35.3 billion) in 2020, an increase of 4.5 percent year-on-year.

The report also highlighted that more than 60 percent of China's IP service agencies were located in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, the Yangtze River Delta and the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area.

The application of new technologies, such as artificial intelligence and big data, boosted the efficiency of IP services, the report said.