Intellectual Property Fuels the Development of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area as an International Science and Technology Innovation Hub—
The Shenzhen-Hong Kong-Guangzhou innovation cluster ranked first among the world's top 100 innovation clusters in 2025; Seven Guangdong enterprises and other innovation entities made the 2024 Global Top 50 PCT Patent Applicants list, with Huawei ranking first globally for seven consecutive years; During the 14th Five-Year Plan period, Guangdong recorded 692,700 patent transfers, licenses, and assignments—the highest nationwide...
Guangdong has been a trailblazer, pioneer, and experimental zone for reform and opening-up.
Marking the 45th anniversary of reform and opening-up in 2023, General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasized during his inspection tour in Guangdong that the province must earnestly implement the Party Central Committee's decisions and deployments. He stressed treating the development of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area as a major opportunity and priority for deepening reform and opening-up, placing it at the forefront of efforts. Xi specifically called for strengthening innovation support for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to cultivate more innovative enterprises with independent intellectual property rights and core competitiveness.
The surging Pearl River nourishes Guangdong's thriving innovation ecosystem with the “living water” of intellectual property. During the 14th Five-Year Plan period, Guangdong has consistently advanced the dual goals of becoming a pioneer province in building a strong intellectual property nation and establishing itself as a leading intellectual property province within the world-class Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area. The province has led the nation in regional innovation capabilities for eight consecutive years and in the regional intellectual property development index for twelve consecutive years, with multiple core indicators ranking first nationwide. Focusing on critical questions regarding cutting-edge technologies—who will innovate, how to protect innovations, and how to utilize them—Guangdong has pioneered a development path that leverages intellectual property as a core connecting force.
Dedicated Service Bolsters Innovation Confidence
The Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area boasts a comprehensive innovation chain and industrial chain. Numerous research institutions, industrial alliances, and industry associations converge here, illuminating new pathways for enterprises to elevate their innovation capabilities.
“For Chinese tech companies to transition from technology followers to rule-makers, technological innovation is indispensable,” remarked Mi Yao, Vice President and Head of Intellectual Property at ZTE Corporation. Since filing its first patent application in 1996 and its first PCT international patent application in 1998, ZTE has now submitted over 90,000 patent applications globally, covering core technologies like wired communications and wireless networks.
ZTE epitomizes the numerous enterprises in Guangdong that persist in expanding markets through technology and pursuing development through innovation. Today, Guangdong Province boasts over 20 million registered business entities. In the first eight months of this year alone, the province added 2.1269 million new business entities, including 414,600 new “Four New Economies” enterprises (new technologies, new industries, new formats, new models) and 167,600 new digital economy enterprises. This surge has powerfully supported the development of Guangdong's new productive forces.
What fuels this region's vibrant innovation ecosystem? The answer lies in Guangdong's meticulously woven intellectual property service network. The province has spearheaded pilot projects for standardized intellectual property public services in Guangzhou, Shenzhen, and Foshan; established three national demonstration zones and pilot areas for high-quality intellectual property service clusters in Guangzhou Development Zone, Shenzhen Futian District, and Guangzhou Yuexiu District; Municipal-level IP public service nodes now cover the entire province, with 13 Technology and Innovation Support Centers (TISCs) established... Thanks to these service platforms, this “IP network” not only safeguards the value of every innovation but also bolsters enterprises' confidence in deepening industrial development and pursuing breakthroughs, making their innovation efforts increasingly robust.
Strengthening Collaboration for Effective Protection
Moving in concert, the comprehensive IP protection framework continues to mature.
Eleven Guangdong entities jointly signed the Memorandum on Strengthening Collaborative Intellectual Property Protection in Guangdong, while eight departments co-issued the Task Division for Implementing the Intellectual Property Protection System Construction Project Plan. These measures have further enhanced IP protection efficacy, achieving rigorous, collaborative, precise, efficient, and intelligent protection.
In recent years, Guangdong pioneered the exploration of “delegated adjudication” for patent infringement disputes and established a “dual-support” mechanism combining infringement determination and technical investigation. Since the start of the 14th Five-Year Plan period, Guangdong has handled 38,900 patent infringement cases, including 7,597 administrative adjudications and 31,300 rights protection opinions. This continuous enhancement of professional capabilities facilitates swift dispute resolution, ensuring genuine innovation receives genuine protection and safeguarding technological advancement and industrial upgrading.
Deepening and solidifying efforts, intellectual property protection has formed a cohesive network.
Sixteen national-level intellectual property protection centers and rapid rights protection centers, eight local branches of the National Overseas IP Dispute Response Guidance Center, five national commercial secret protection innovation pilot zones, and 24 “Golden Inner Bay Commercial Secret Protection Innovation Project” pioneer zones... An increasing number of intellectual property protection sites have been established in Guangdong. These “anchor points” lay a solid foundation for forming a multi-tiered, comprehensive intellectual property protection system.
Advancing with the times, intellectual property protection models evolve.
In the digital age, questions about how to protect data and enhance its circulation and utilization have drawn significant attention. In November 2022, Guangdong became one of China's first pilot regions for data intellectual property work. Since then, the province has continuously explored effective pathways and models for protecting and utilizing data intellectual property, issuing policy documents and local standards such as the “Implementation Plan for Guangdong Provincial Pilot Work on Data Intellectual Property” and the “Data Intellectual Property Registration Guide.” By August 2025, the province had received 3,817 applications for data intellectual property registration and issued 2,604 certificates. Building on this foundation, it has advanced initiatives such as data intellectual property transactions and pledge financing.
The construction of the Shenzhen-Zhongshan Channel pioneered advanced technologies including the world's largest span fully offshore steel box girder suspension bridge and the world's first underwater highway interchange. During construction, the Shenzhen-Zhongshan Channel Management Center established a digital quality management system for offshore engineering processes and applied for its registration as data intellectual property. In July this year, the “Shenzhen-Zhongshan Channel Construction Process Quality Management Data” obtained a data intellectual property registration certificate. This marks Guangdong's first such certificate in the major engineering sector, playing a crucial role in clarifying corporate data ownership, standardizing operational management, mitigating operational risks, and strengthening legal safeguards. This milestone signifies breakthrough progress in Guangdong's reform of market-oriented data allocation and represents a solid step forward in protecting data elements for major infrastructure projects. Building on this achievement, Guangdong will focus on establishing a comprehensive service chain for data intellectual property—covering registration, utilization, and protection—to fully unlock the value of data elements.
Unlocking Value, Enabling Channels
Guangdong stands as a frontier of reform and opening-up, serving as a global “technology showcase.” In May 2024, the National Intellectual Property Operation (Shenzhen Hetao) International Conversion Pilot Platform—China's first transaction platform specializing in international IP conversion—was approved for construction. Since its launch, the platform has established cooperative mechanisms with multiple internationally renowned universities and research institutions, facilitating transaction intentions for over 100 high-value patents and building a bridge for patent technology to “go global” and “attract foreign investment.”
Universities are rich sources of patents, but how can these technologies, often gathering dust on shelves, be brought to market? “Through the Guangdong University Technology Transfer Center platform, users can instantly connect with university faculty or search for needed technologies by keyword. Technology maturity is categorized into nine levels—from theoretical research to small-scale trials to commercial products—allowing buyers to select ‘products’ tailored to their needs,” explained Li Jiayu, Director of the Guangdong University Science and Technology Achievement Transformation Center.
In 2024, Guangdong recorded 141,000 patent transfers and assignments, along with 19,000 patent licenses granted and received. This April, the Guangdong Provincial Administration for Market Regulation (Intellectual Property Office) issued the “Notice on Key Measures for Patent Transformation and Utilization in Guangdong by 2025,” outlining 28 specific initiatives to enhance the efficiency, effectiveness, and vitality of patent transformation mechanisms.
In recent years, Guangdong has continuously explored innovations in intellectual property finance models, channeling financial “living water” into technological innovation. The scale of intellectual property finance in Guangdong has expanded steadily, with increasingly diversified products. In 2024, the province's patent and trademark pledge financing reached 345.397 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 49.74%, benefiting 5,067 enterprises, including 4,931 small and medium-sized enterprises. Twenty-five new intellectual property securitization products were issued, totaling over 4 billion yuan. Bolstered by financial policies, the monetization capacity of intellectual property has further strengthened.
“Guangdong's intellectual property authorities will continue to cultivate fertile ground for innovation, enabling more high-value patents to flourish here; optimize market-oriented mechanisms for intellectual property to smooth the path for innovation commercialization; and enhance the intellectual property protection system to more robustly support the development of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area as an international science and technology innovation hub,” stated Chen Xinlie, Party Secretary and Director of the Guangdong Provincial Administration for Market Regulation.