By the end of 2023, the total number of patent agencies (including branches) in Jiangsu has exceeded 1,000, reaching 1,035, an increase of 163 from the previous year. After Guangdong and Beijing, Jiangsu became the third province in China to have over a thousand patent agencies.

Specifically, in terms of the nature of the agencies, Jiangsu province has 617 main agencies and 418 branch agencies, including 107 law firms. In terms of regional distribution, the southern, central, and northern regions of Jiangsu have 760, 131, and 144 patent agencies, respectively. Among these, Suzhou, Nanjing, and Wuxi have the highest numbers of patent agencies in the province, with 302, 232, and 123, respectively. In terms of personnel, there are 2,990 practicing patent agents in the province, with 426 new registrations in 2023. Meanwhile, there are 57 agencies with more than 10 practicing patent agents in the province. In terms of agency business, Jiangsu agencies handled a total of 310,800 patent applications in 2023, of which 73,200 were invention patents, and 13 agencies handled over 1,000 authorized invention patents.

In recent years, the Intellectual Property Office of Jiangsu Province has attached great importance to the construction of patent agencies, insisting on the dual emphasis of guidance and supervision. On the one hand, efforts have been made to accelerate the construction of intellectual property service agglomeration areas, support cities such as Nanjing and Suzhou to actively attract national high-end intellectual property service institutions, and provide value-added services such as patent navigation and analysis and evaluation for local enterprises. Efforts have also been made to strengthen the training of professional talent and to implement tiered and categorized training for new agents in practice and agents who have been in practice for more than five years. On the other hand, the "Blue Sky" special rectification action to strictly rectify irregular patent applications and unauthorized patent agency business has been implemented. Innovative daily supervision models have also been launched, while targeted guidance for newly established patent agencies has been carried out. And the active undertaking of the national pilot program for patent and trademark agency credit management is also played a role.

Next, the Intellectual Property Office of Jiangsu Province will further implement the "Quality Improvement Action for Patent Agency", strengthen the concept of prioritizing quality in agency services, and take the construction of intellectual property service industry cluster as an important step to continuously optimize the quality and structure of supply of patent agency services, and accelerate the high-quality development of the intellectual property service industry.