Intellectual Property Drives New Development Landscape in the Greater Bay Area

The Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA) is one of China's most open and economically dynamic regions. Developing the GBA is a major national strategy personally conceived, deployed, and advanced by President Xi Jinping. On October 31, the China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA) convened a thematic press conference in Guangzhou on "Intellectual Property Empowering High-Quality Development in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area," inviting heads of IP management departments from Guangdong, Hong Kong, and Macao to jointly brief on IP-enabled high-quality development in the region.

The conference revealed that the IP system has diligently studied and implemented President Xi Jinping's important directives and the decisions of the CPC Central Committee and State Council, striving to unblock the entire IP chain—creation, utilization, protection, management, and services—to help the three GBA regions leverage respective strengths, unleash synergies, and jointly build a globally influential international science and technology innovation hub, achieving a series of landmark results.

According to the World Intellectual Property Organization's 2025 Global Innovation Index, among the world's top 100 innovation clusters, the "Shenzhen-Hong Kong-Guangzhou" cluster ranked first globally for the first time, while the "Macao-Zhuhai" cluster entered the top 100 for two consecutive years. As of end-June this year, the GBA held 817,000 authorized invention patents and 8.524 million valid registered trademarks—each accounting for roughly one-sixth of the national total. In the first half of this year, CNIPA received 13,500 PCT international patent applications from GBA-based innovators, up over 30% year-on-year.

Steadier Steps Toward Integrated Development

Through targeted efforts in coordination, service optimization, and technology transfer, the GBA is making solid, steady progress in IP-driven regional integration, continuously unleashing innovation vitality.

Chen Xinlüe, Director of the Guangdong Provincial Intellectual Property Administration, noted that Guangdong actively builds cross-regional IP commercialization mechanisms and cross-border innovation factor flows: developing the National IP Operation (Shenzhen-Hekou) International Technology Transfer Pilot Platform; hosting signature events like the Greater Bay Area IP Trade Fair & International Geographical Indications Products Expo, the GBA High-Value Patent Cultivation & Layout Competition, and the Eastern, Western, and Northern Guangdong IP Innovation Application Competition; and establishing the "Greater Bay Area Cross-Regional Patent Commercialization Cooperation Alliance," facilitating 776 cross-regional patent transfers among GBA universities and research institutes.

To support Hong Kong innovators in protecting IP more conveniently and effectively on the mainland, CNIPA launched a pilot program offering priority examination for Hong Kong applicants' mainland invention patents. Since January 1, 2023, Hong Kong applicants can submit applications through CNIPA's Guangzhou and Shenzhen offices, enabling priority examination for eligible invention patents. Starting late June this year, Hong Kong innovators also gained access to pre-examination services from the Shenzhen IP Protection Center. Tsang Chi-sum, Deputy Director of the Hong Kong Intellectual Property Department, stated that both measures effectively shorten examination cycles for Hong Kong-originated mainland patent applications, accelerating commercialization of Hong Kong's R&D outputs—especially in the GBA. "CNIPA has also approved the Hong Kong Productivity Council to establish the territory's first WIPO Technology and Innovation Support Center (TISC), enhancing Hong Kong's IP service scope and capabilities while integrating it into the national network of over 200 TISCs across mainland provinces and cities," Tsang added.

As GBA economic integration tightens, many mainland GBA and Guangdong enterprises seek to expand into Macao, creating demand for Macao's IP services. "To meet this need, we have worked closely with the Guangdong IP Administration. Since October 15, we've established Macao IP inquiry points at 24 IP service windows, including CNIPA's Guangdong Office, offering the public general consultation services for patent applications and trademark registration in Macao," said Kuong Son-cheong, Director of the Intellectual Property Department of Macao's Economic and Technological Development Bureau. "These services significantly enhance public service convenience across Guangdong and Macao, fully meeting the IP public service needs of mainland GBA innovators."

Louder Chorus of Innovation Protection

IP protection is a cornerstone of high-quality GBA development. An increasingly robust protection system is encouraging more innovators to invest in R&D and launch new technologies, products, and services with proprietary IP.

"Guangdong continues strengthening its rapid, collaborative protection system, having established 17 state-level IP protection centers and rapid rights-assistance centers covering strategic emerging industries like next-generation IT and distinctive sectors like lighting," Chen Xinlüe explained. "From January to September this year, these centers accepted 10,600 IP rights protection cases and 41,800 pre-examination requests."

As a core GBA engine, Guangzhou hosts numerous exhibitions like the China Import and Export Fair, drawing close attention from domestic and foreign innovators. "In recent years, Guangzhou has focused on building itself into an IP protection powerhouse, striving to become a 'governance innovation hub, dispute resolution destination, industry protection model zone, and cultural communication specialty zone,'" said Zhao Junming, Party Secretary of the Guangzhou Intellectual Property Administration. To address its "exhibition-intensive" profile, Guangzhou has implemented full-cycle protection—"pre-exhibition screening, on-site inspection, and post-exhibition follow-up"—resolving over 1,300 exhibition IP disputes annually.

Business environment is the lifeline of high-quality urban development and a core competitiveness factor. As a vital window for China's reform and opening-up, Shenzhen has pioneered many initiatives to optimize its IP business environment and strengthen enterprise IP protection. "As a national pilot city for optimizing the IP business environment, Shenzhen consistently prioritizes this as its 'foremost reform project,' vigorously building itself into a model IP-strong city and protection hub," said Cai Yingquan, Director of the Shenzhen Intellectual Property Administration. Shenzhen has fortified legal safeguards, issuing local regulations like the IP Protection Ordinance and Sci-Tech Innovation Ordinance, deepening comprehensive reforms in emerging IP legal protection, implementing punitive damages for infringement and administrative injunctions, piloting over 10 national initiatives including data IP and administrative adjudication, with eight reform experiences promoted nationwide by the National Development and Reform Commission.

Full-Chain IP Synergy Sustains GBA Innovation Vitality

From deepened cross-regional collaboration to tightened protection networks, IP has become a "power source" for GBA integration and high-quality development. As the roadmap for GBA synergistic development grows clearer, tripartite cooperation in IP will advance toward even deeper levels.