According to recent local news reports, Shaoxing in East China's Zhejiang province ranked first in the province and fourth in the country in terms of its 2019 performance in protecting intellectual property rights, as evaluated by the National Intellectual Property Administration. 

Notably, Zhejiang also ranked first among the country's 84 IPR protection pilot cities.

Data show that the IPR pledge financing in the city stood at 1.3 billion yuan ($186 million) in 2019, a record high. The city's patents pledge financing reached 960 million yuan, 4.8 times that of 2018, the highest rate of increase among all Zhejiang cities. 

Shaoxing's IPR protection plays an important role in guaranteeing the smooth resumption of local businesses after the coronavirus outbreak. In the first five months of this year, the city's IPR pledge financing was 683 million yuan, ranking second among all Zhejiang cities.

"The materialization of the intangible IPR and the conversion of knowledge into capital have the potential to solve financing problems for enterprises, especially small and medium-sized tech companies," said an official from the Shaoxing administration of market regulation. The administration signed an agreement last year to partner up with three banks, including Bank of Communications, in promoting IPR pledge financing; new additions to its list of partners this year were Bank of China, Bank of Beijing, and Zhejiang Tailong Commercial Bank. In addition, Shaoxing is building a policy-based guarantees system and is strengthening risk sharing and compensation for IPR pledge financing.