From January to November last year, the provincial intellectual property bureau received more than 31,000 patent applications, of which 20,911 were approved, the largest number nationwide.

Guangdong first topped China with its number of authorized patents in 1995 and has held on to the lead ever since. Not only have numbers increased but patent quality has also improved.

In the first 11 months of last year, the number of authorized patents on new inventions reached 3,403, up almost 50 percent over the previous year.

By the end of 2002, the province had authorized 200,000 trademarks altogether, and has led the country in this respect for the past eight years.

Guangdong has also proved effective in handling legal cases on intellectual property rights. In the first half of 2002, 194 disputes over patent rights and 913 trademark abuse cases were dealt with by relevant official departments.

Meanwhile, efforts have been stepped up to crack down on the piracy of books, CDs and other cultural products. Since 1996, the province has destroyed 120 illegal CD production lines, also the largest number nationwide.

(Xinhua News Agency January 10, 2003)