Invention patents double over past five years

The number of patents for invention in 2015 in North China's Shanxi province amounted to 8,104, a growth of 29 percent from a year earlier, said the province's science and technology department on Jan 17. 

The 2015 figure doubled that of 2011 at 3,359. Patents for invention rose 24.6 percent annually during the 12th Five-Year Plan (2011-2015). 

Over the past five years, Shanxi adopted measures to promote applications for patents for invention by surveying enterprises and grass roots industries and researching industrial distribution and enterprises' demands for intellectual properties, and by making it a municipal government's indicator in performance appraisals.