Han Ximin

    THE city submitted 2,170 Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) applications in 2007, accounting for 40 percent of the mainland’s total, according to a white paper released Thursday, two days ahead of World Intellectual Property Day.

    It was the fourth successive year that Shenzhen led mainland cities in the number of such applications.

    The PCT, an international agreement on filing patent applications, has been signed by 117 countries, which means that applications filed in one country are valid in the other 116.

    The large number of applications shows local enterprises are increasingly aware of their intellectual property rights (IPR), city officials said.

    The city government first issued the annual IPR white paper in 2004.