A staff member observes the operation of intelligent equipment at the Harbin Electric Machinery Co Ltd in Harbin, Heilongjiang province, Feb 22, 2024. [Photo/Xinhua]

China became the nation with the most "top 100 science and technology clusters" for the first time last year, an official from the country's top intellectual property regulator said on Wednesday.

Shen Changyu, head of the China National Intellectual Property Administration, told a news conference that the quality and quantity of China's innovation had both improved last year.

Citing the Global Innovation Index 2023, which was issued by the World Intellectual Property Organization, Shen added that China had owned 24 of the top 100 science and technology clusters by the end of last year, ranking first in the world for the first time.

According to the index, in 2023, as in previous years, the top 100 S&T clusters were concentrated in three regions, namely, Northern America, Europe and Asia, and more specifically, in two countries: China and the United States.

For the first time in 2023, China was the economy that had the most clusters ranked among the top 100, overtaking the US with 21 clusters unchanged on the year, the index said.

Data released by Shen on Wednesday showed that China authorized 921,000 invention patents last year, up 15.3 percent year-over-year.

More than 6.4 million works were registered as copyrights last year, an increase of 42.3 percent compared with that in 2022, he said.

Meanwhile, the country's efforts in IP protection have also been strengthened, with a crackdown on 4,745 cases concerning piracy and 44,000 administrative disputes involving patent infringement last year, he said.

In addition, a number of IP-related global forums were held by China, deepening international cooperation and exchanges in this regard, he added.