BEIJING, Jan. 4 (Xinhua) -- China made 1.38 million invention patent applications in 2017, a 14.2 percent increase year on year, an intellectual property official said here Thursday.

Of the total applications, 744,000 patents have been handled and concluded, said Shen Changyu, head of the State Intellectual Property Office, told a meeting attended by intellectual property officials from across the country.

Under the Patent Cooperation Treaty, a total of 51,000 international patent applications were received in 2017, up 12.5 percent from the previous year, Shen said in a work report delivered at the meeting.

Shen said the number of invention patents on the Chinese mainland reached 1.35 million, meaning that for every 10,000 people there are 9.8 patents on average.

About 67,000 administrative patent cases were handled last year, increasing by 36.3 percent on a yearly basis, according to Shen.

Shen said the country should improve the production in IP to raise technology service quality.

"Protection of IP should be further strengthened to create a favorable market environment, while the application of IP should be strengthened to better support the real economy," he said.

He also asked for more international cooperations and exchanges on IP, to serve the country's policy of opening up.