BEIJING - An increasing number of patents and trademark registrations is boosting social awareness of intellectual property rights (IPR) in China, which will change the way that the world's second-largest economy grows, experts said.

The number of trademark registration applications reached 1.42 million in 2011, a sharp rise from the 19,000 applications submitted in 1983, when the country's trademark law took effect, a national news magazine Outlook Weekly reported.

"The increasing number of patents will be conducive to IPR awareness in China," said Prof. Liu Chuntian at Renmin University.

Liu said IPR protection is a basic tenet of the modern market economy, adding that China should carry out top-down reforms to further improve IPR regulations and laws.

The government's previous efforts to protect IPR include a strategic guideline published in 2008 that set a goal of making substantial progress in creation, application, protection and management of IPR by 2020.

China has only 21 of the world's top 500 brands, despite a large number of patents and trademark applications, the report said, adding that China's performance in IPR does not match the size of its economy.

However, home-grown technologies, including the TD-SCDMA and TD-LTE telecommunications interfaces, and emerging hi-tech giants, such as Huawei and ZTE, indicate that China is starting to improve its capacity to innovate, the report said.