BEIJING - The State Intellectual Property Office granted 1.26 million patents in 2012 to domestic and overseas applicants, up 31.25 percent from a year earlier, according to data released by the office Tuesday.

The office received 2.05 million patent applications from home and abroad in 2012, an increase of 25.77 percent from a year earlier, office commissioner Tian Lipu said at a conference on intellectual property rights.

The office grants patents in three categories: inventions, utility models and designs.

The number of invention patents granted by the office jumped 26.1 percent to 217,000 cases last year, Tian said.

By the end of 2012, China had 435,000 legitimate invention patents (not including those from Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan), which represent an average of 3.23 invention patents for every 10,000 Chinese.

The government aims to have an average of 3.3 legitimate invention patents per 10,000 people by 2015, according to the 12th Five-Year Plan (2011-2015).