At a recent news briefing, Tang Shanxin, deputy head of the Guangdong Provincial Intellectual Property Bureau, said that last year, the province received 34,339 applications for patents and granted 22,760, up 24.4 percent and 25 percent, respectively, from2001, and topping the figures of all other provinces. The province has led the country in this regard for the past eight years.

As of late 2002, the province had registered 208,140 valid trademarks, accounting for more than one-eighth of the national total. Of these, 309 have become famous brands.

Guangdong has benefited enormously from the reform and opening-up drive and has grown into one of the country's leading exporters.

(Xinhua News Agency April 30, 2003)