The China National Intellectual Property Administration has recently approved the construction of a national-level intellectual property protection center in Taizhou, East China's Zhejiang province.

The center will focus on providing comprehensive services for the rapid protection of intellectual property in high-end equipment manufacturing and energy conservation and environmental protection industries, including patent fast-track examination, rapid proprietary rights confirmation, and rapid rights protection.

Taizhou is home to 27 industrial clusters, each with a scale of 10 billion yuan ($1.37 billion) or above, and 68 national-level industrial bases, making it an important advanced manufacturing hub in the Yangtze River Delta region. The high-end equipment manufacturing and energy conservation and environmental protection industries in Taizhou are prominent industrial clusters with distinct advantages among the city's manufacturing industries.

From 2018 to 2022, high-end equipment manufacturing enterprises in Taizhou applied for 28,087 invention patents, of which 12,459 were granted. Energy conservation and environmental protection manufacturing enterprises applied for 8,340 invention patents, with 3,721 being granted. After the completion of the national-level intellectual property protection center, the patent examination period will be significantly shortened. For invention patents, the examination period will be reduced from 18 months to eight-ten months; for utility model patents, it will be shortened from six-twelve months to one-two months; and for design patents, it will be reduced from four-six months to 15-20 days.