June 17(China Daily) --China has made strides in the creation, use and protection of intellectual property since the country implemented its IP strategy in 2008, said Han Xiucheng, director at the State Intellectual Property Office's Intellectual Property Development and Research Center.

Han made the remarks at a June 7 news conference for the release of the 2015 China IP development report.

The report set the index for IP overall development, creation, use, protection and environment to 100 in 2010 to measure changes in performance from 2010 to 2015.

According to Xinhua News Agency, China's overall IP development has been accelerating over the past five years, with the general index rising from 100 points in 2010 to 187.35 points in 2015.

According to the report, China became more capable of creating and protecting IP in 2015, but its overall development still lags behind some developed countries such as the United States and Japan.

Han ofered examples of IP progress over the past years. He said, on average, 10,000 people in China owned 6.37 invention patents by the end of 2015, a rise from 1.75 in 2010.

Trademark registrations in 2015 reached 1.98 million from 1.16 million in 2010.

As for IP use, patent-pledged financing reached 8.06 billion yuan ($1.22 billion) in 2010 and 55.6 billion yuan in 2015.

Administrative enforcement officials handled 35,653 patent cases in 2015, a year-on-year increase of 45.8 percent.

The director said the IP environment in China improved. The number of patent agencies and branches increased from 974 in 2010 to 1,733 last year. There were 8.13 patent applications for every 10,000 Chinese people in 2010, 19.13 in 2015.

Han said the IP creation growth rates in 2014 and 2015 were higher than in the three previous years. China's innovation-driven strategy in recent years and policies supporting innovation and entrepreneurship have promoted IP quantity and quality creation, he added.

Growth in IP use over the past two years slowed under economic pressure, according to the report, which stated that IP use is tied to China's economic development.

Guangdong province, Beijing and Shanghai topped the Chinese mainland in the 2015 IP overall development index.

Anhui, Hubei and Shaanxi provinces as well as Chongqing had higher average annual growth rates from 2010 to 2015 than any other region.

The report also compared IP development in 2014 among 40 countries whose research and development expenditure was estimated to account for more than 98 percent of the world's total, with their GDP taking 88 percent and invention patent filings 89 percent.

The report analyzed IP capacity of sample countries by IP creation, management, protection and use; IP performance by domestic innovation's contribution and international influence; and IP environment by the system, market and cultural environments.

China improved its ranking from ninth in 2013 to eighth in 2014, according to the report.

Though the country remained third in IP capacity and performance, after the United States and Japan, score gaps between China and the top two narrowed significantly.

China's IP environment still ranked 30th in 2014 despite the 0.49 increase in score compared with the previous year. Considering the long and tough path for improving the IP environment, the gap between China and the advanced countries would remain, Han said.