(Yicai) Dec. 6 -- The 21st Shanghai International Intellectual Property Forum kicked off in the city on Dec. 4.

The four-day event, co-hosted by the China National IP Administration, the World Intellectual Property Organization, and the Shanghai government, is held under the tagline "IP Empowers the Development of New Quality Productive Forces."

Shanghai places high importance on IP work, Mayor Gong Zheng said at the forum's opening ceremony. The city will strive to create a world-class IP protection environment to facilitate the creation and application of more high-value IPs, he added.

Shanghai is gradually becoming a global hub for science and technology and a significant center for IP activities in China and worldwide, Daren Tang, director general of the WIPO, said in a video speech during the ceremony.

The number of approved invention patents in Shanghai rose 15 percent to 43,400 in the ten months ended Oct. 31 from a year earlier.

Editor: Martin Kadiev