The more than 210,000 invention patents granted in China last year "illustrate progress in technology and the country's capacity for innovation", said a senior official from the State Intellectual Property Office at a press conference last week.

The 26.1 percent increase over 2011 sent the nation's total patent inventory past the one-million milestone for the first time.

"Now IP is improving the country's core competitiveness and changing the economic development model," Gan Shaoning, deputy commissioner of SIPO, said at the meeting.