BEIJING — Some 1.47 million patents have been registered in the Chinese mainland, or 10.6 patents for every 10,000 citizens, the State Intellectual Property Office said on July 10.

In the first half of this year, the applications for invention patents reached 751,000, of which 217,000 have been granted, the office said.

Strengthened intellectual property right (IPR) protection led to a 29.5 percent year-on-year increase in IPR administrative cases in the same period.

Domestic enterprises made up the majority of patent granted and owned, at 63.8 percent and 67.2 percent respectively.

However, China still lags behind developed countries in the number of patents in fields such as optics, electrical apparatus, audio and video, medical technology, transportation and computers, according to Bi Nan, an official with the office.