Yiwu in East China's Zhejiang province has been placed on a special list of national pilot counties selected for their development of strong intellectual property rights (IPR), according to an announcement released by the China National Intellectual Property Administration on Aug 29.

In recent years, the city has not only prioritized the preservation and development of traditional knowledge and folk literature and art, but also promoted the reform of intellectual property rights.

As a result, the production of famed celadon swords there is said to have made a qualitative leap forward in IPR, with a steady increase in the number of patent applications and authorizations and a continuous optimization of patent structure.

So far, Yiwu has achieved a total of 30,688 valid patents and 3,193 valid invention patents. The city has given a total of 121 companies patent pledge financing, amounting to 6.88 billion yuan ($967.29 million) in total.

Moving forward, Yiwu plans to further improve intellectual property creation, application, protection, management and services for traditional industries to boost their high-quality development.