Chengdu has climbed to 21st place globally in the World Intellectual Property Organization's (WIPO) 2026 Global Innovation Index, according to information released on September 9 by the Chengdu Municipal Market Supervision Administration. The WIPO ranking, published on September 8, places the city three spots higher than the previous year, securing its position as the 7th leading innovation cluster nationwide and maintaining its top status in western China. Notably, among the top 30 global clusters, Chengdu recorded the most significant upward movement.
In this year's list, 25 Chinese clusters made it into the global top 100, keeping China's number one position in terms of the number of clusters for the fourth consecutive year. Since its debut on the list in 2018 at 56th place, Chengdu has moved up 35 positions over eight years, demonstrating a consistently rising innovation trajectory.
This substantial progress in Chengdu's global innovation ranking is deeply anchored in a robust framework of intellectual property (IP) initiatives. In recent years, the Chengdu Municipal Market Supervision Administration (Municipal IP Administration) has actively implemented special campaigns for the application of patent conversions. It has guided 78 universities and research institutions in classifying and reviewing a stockpile of 68,000 patents; of these, 37,000 have been included in the national patent conversion database, and 4,413 have achieved industrial application. The city has also established 49 high-value patent cultivation centers in collaboration with the province, consistently reinforcing the primary role of enterprises in innovation and progressively cultivating 59 national-level IP demonstration enterprises and 69 provincial-level IP strong enterprises. Since the start of the 14th Five-Year Plan period, 75 patents from Chengdu have received the China Patent Award, including two gold and eight silver medals.
Efforts have been made to advance a diversified approach to resolving IP disputes, actively exploring flexible solutions such as benefit-sharing, cross-licensing, and cooperative development. These measures are designed to effectively safeguard the benefits derived from high-value patents. By June 2026, the city had mediated 942 IP disputes, significantly fostering healthy competition within industries. The latest data reveals that, as of June 2026, the total number of valid invention patents in Chengdu reached 144,900, a year-on-year increase of 15.64%, while the count of high-value invention patents hit 64,200, up 6.1% from the previous period. The number of high-value invention patents per 10,000 residents reached 29.82. In the first half of this year, the city granted 31,000 patents, an 8.38% increase year-on-year, with invention patents growing by 29.09% to 11,700, representing 38% of total grants. This reflects an ongoing optimization of the city's patent structure.
Moving forward, an official from the Chengdu Municipal Market Supervision Administration stated that the city will continue to build on the fast-paced growth momentum of high-value patents, accelerate their conversion and application, strengthen patent navigation and patent pool configuration, and reinforce holistic IP protection throughout the entire chain. These efforts are aimed at empowering the deep integration of technological and industrial innovation, contributing further to China's goal of becoming an IP powerhouse.