An artist's impression of a cutting-edge scientific facility in Hangzhou. [Photo/WeChat account: dskbdskb]

Hangzhou — capital of East China's Zhejiang province — has become the world's 13th largest innovation cluster, according to the World Intellectual Property Organization's 2025 Global Innovation Index, released on Sept 1.

It marks the fourth straight year that the city has been in the list of the world's top 15.

Hangzhou's rise — from 85th in 2017 to 13th today — reflects its strong focus on intellectual property, or IP. The city has led China's provincial capitals in valid invention patents for 17 consecutive years and it accounts for nearly 1 percent of global Patent Cooperation Treaty or PCT patent applications.

Increasingly, innovation is being tied to Hangzhou's digital economy. Patent-intensive industries now contribute over 30 percent of its GDP, well above the national average.

The city has also built strong IP protection systems, boosted its  commercialization of patents and expanded support for startups and specialized small and medium-sized enterprises.

As a pilot city for IP-friendly business ecosystems, Hangzhou is positioning intellectual property as the golden key to unlock new productivity and to fuel global competitiveness in the digital era.

The Zhijiang Laboratory in Hangzhou is a national key laboratory. [Photo/WeChat account: dskbdskb]