HARBIN, May 31 (Xinhua) -- China is enhancing intellectual property (IP) protection in emerging industries within its traditional industrial hubs to foster innovation and revitalization, according to the country's top IP regulator on Friday.

Once the backbone of the country's heavy industry, the northeastern provinces of Jilin, Liaoning and Heilongjiang, along with the neighboring Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, have been focusing on IP development in high-end equipment manufacturing, new-generation information technology, biomedicine, new materials and modern agriculture.

By the end of 2024, the number of valid invention patents in these strategic emerging industries had reached 46,000, according to the China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA).

The achievement is part of the region's broader IP growth: by the end of April 2025, the four provincial-level regions have owned a total of 195,000 valid invention patents, marking a 10.2 percent year-on-year increase; the number of valid registered trademarks has reached 2.16 million, up 7.7 percent year-on-year.

This region has long been a vital industrial and agricultural base for China, making significant industrial and economic contributions in the early decades following the founding of New China in 1949. It continues to play a key role in safeguarding national security in defense, food, ecology, energy and industry.

Amid a key national strategy to revitalize the northeast China, the CNIPA has offered professional IP support to the region's cutting-edge research in fields, such as robotics, new energy, coal chemical industry, and aerospace equipment manufacturing, leveraging the region's rich scientific institutions and top universities.

Local IP agencies across the region have also explored numerous ways to boost IP growth.

Liaoning Province has established national-level centers to provide training for enterprises facing foreign-related IP disputes; Heilongjiang has introduced financial policies to encourage laboratory researchers to commercialize their invention patents; and Jilin has built IP-favored industrial zones for modern agriculture and photo-electronic information enterprises.

Moreover, Inner Mongolia offers local enterprises expedited IP services for patent applications in biology and new materials sectors, ensuring timely protection of their innovations and preventing imitation or infringement by competitors.

"We will continue efforts to turn IP -- the intangible assets -- into the tangible forces driving high-quality development," said Yang Zhihong, deputy head of the Inner Mongolia's IP agency.