BEIJING, May 11 (Xinhua) -- China's network of fast intellectual property rights (IPR) protection service centers is set to expand, as a new national-level center has this week been approved for establishment in the innovation hub of Shenzhen, the country's top IP regulator said.

The new center will be based in the city's Futian district, a central business area that is home to over 2,000 fashion industry enterprises and features an industrial cluster valued at 120 billion yuan (about 16.6 billion U.S. dollars).

According to the China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA), the center will offer local enterprises expedited IP services for their design patent applications -- ensuring timely protection of their innovations and preventing imitation or infringement by competitors.

The processing period from application submission to patent authorization can be reduced to within three months through the services provided by this center, the CNIPA told Xinhua. Generally, it takes around six months for a design patent to complete the process from application to authorization.

Design is a major patent type in China. Latest data showed that 638,000 design patents were authorized in China in 2023. The country also ranked first in the world in terms of international design patent applications in 2024.

The efficient services that will be offered by the Futian center will help attract more fashion design talent to the district, enhance their design competitiveness, and support the innovative growth of local small and medium-sized fashion enterprises -- ultimately driving high-quality development, the CNIPA noted.

China currently has 48 national-level fast IPR protection service centers, focusing on small commodities and packaged consumer goods in county-level industrial clusters that have a fast product update cycle and strong demand for design protection. Such centers have been built in places like Yiwu in east China, a hub for small commodities, and south China's Shantou, renowned as the "toy capital" of China.■