The city of Guangzhou has positioned itself as an intellectual property hub and attracted a group of key IP projects to settle down, and has formed a system to ensure protection through the joint efforts of local administrative, judicial, arbitration, customs departments and guilds.

The Guangdong Office of the Patent Examination Cooperation Center of the State Intellectual Property Office is engaged in the substantive examination of applications for patents of invention, international retrieval and preliminary examination of PCT (Patent Cooperation Treaty) international applications, providing evaluation of utility model and design patents for judicial procedure, as well as technical and legal advisory services for patent applications and protection for enterprises.

The Guangzhou Intellectual Property Court is the second IPR courts in China and handles civil and administrative cases of first instance regarding patents, new plant varieties, layout-design of integrated circuits, technological secrets and computer software in the province and cross-regional civil cases of first instance regarding identification of well-known trademarks.

The Guangzhou Intellectual Property Arbitration Court hears cases involving intellectual property contract disputes. It has initiated a unique structure featuring high-efficiency and convenience, enabling arbitration to become a third effective way aside from judicial and administrative approaches.

The Guangzhou Intellectual Property Exchange provides services involving intellectual property right trade and enterprise property right trade, such as transactions, transfer, agent services, management services, information services for IP projects. The commercialization of IPR, patent, and non-patent technological achievements, related enterprise property rights transactions and the operation of IP funds are also services provided by the Guangzhou Intellectual Property Exchange.

The Intellectual Property Border Protection Alliance of Guangzhou Area was launched by the municipal intellectual property office, Guangzhou Customs, Huangpu Customs and 13 guilds. It has created a working mechanism combining guild alliances and border protection, which is the first of its kind in China to promote IPR services for the different industries in Guangzhou.

With a year-on-year increase of 36.8 percent, the city filed 63,366 patent applications in 2015. The growth rate was twice more than that of 2014. Among the applications, 20,087 were innovation patents, up 37.7 percent year-on-year. Its growth rate was 1.9 times larger than that of 2014; 6,626 invention patent authorizations, up 44.4 percent year-on-year, seeing a substantial increase compared with the growth rate of 13.2 percent in 2014. By the end of 2015, Guangzhou has 24,142 valid patents of innovation, up 27.1 percent from a year earlier; 623 PCT international patent applications; and 17.9 invention patents for every 10 thousand people, almost 2.9 times the national average.

Guangzhou has been listed among national intellectual property demonstration cities, national trademark demonstration cities and national copyright model cities. In 2015, the city accepted 927 administrative cases relating to patents including 233 cases of patent infringement dispute, handled 366 cases involving fake patents and dealt with 328 patent infringement complaints at exhibitions like the Canton Fair.

It was also listed among the first batch of national intellectual property pilot cities and ranks first among 14 sub-provincial demonstration cities for its performance in IP protection.