BEIJING?— As of the end of November, China had more than 20,000 licensed patent attorneys and 2,649 patent agencies, according to the National Intellectual Property Administration (NIPA).

Patent attorneys and agencies are important parts of the whole patent system, and also the link between inventors and examiners, said Shen Changyu, head of the NIPA, at a conference of the All-China Patent Attorneys Association on Dec 19 in Beijing.

Shen stressed to keep improving the service level of patent attorneys and agencies to give strong support to the high-quality development of intellectual property.