Nearly 80,000 patent applications were filed last year in Beijing, a 36 percent increase over 2010, according to the latest statistics from the city's intellectual property bureau.

Ownership of invention patents per 10,000 Beijing residents hit 26.78 last year, almost eight times the target set in China's 12th Five-Year Plan (2011-2015), ranking the city first nationwide.

About 60 percent of all Beijing applications were for patents on inventions in machinery, electrical devices, telecommunications, biology, medicine, chemistry and opto-electronic technologies.

(Source: China Daily)