This paper aims to systematically investigate the impacts of strengthening intellectual property rights on patenting in China's high-technology industries and to explore the potential differences in response to patent reform by ownership. Empirical results show that the estimated patent elasticity of R&D is lower than that for OECD countries, indicating relatively low R&D productivity for China's high-technology industries. The direct innovation effect of technology imports is negative, while the absorptive ability embodied in R&D helps in gaining external sources of knowledge, thus contributing to innovations. Specifically, strengthening intellectual property rights can induce more innovations in terms of patents in China's high-technology industries and is particularly relevant to foreign-owned high-technology enterprises.
