With more than 9,000 filings - 6,209 of them granted - Changsha ranked at the top of provincial capitals in both applications and patents in 2010, according to recent statistics released by the city's intellectual property office.

The city's top 50 industrial and mining companies filed the majority of applications.

They ranged from businesses producing new materials, engineering machinery, automobiles and auto parts to electronic information, home appliances, biomedicine and pharmaceuticals using traditional Chinese herbs as raw materials.

They filed more than 2,200 patent applications, about 85 percent of top 50.

(Source: China Daily)