This is the first time in the country that intellectual property can be used as a form of assets in addition to factory buildings and land for business to apply to borrow money from banks.

"The loan limits for such businesses are usually 5 million yuan ($760,000) based on the number of intellectual property assets they own," said Ye Zongxiong, deputy director of the general administrative office of the district bureau.

Wang Yu, president of Shanghai Yuking Water Soluble Material Tech Co, which sells its products to medicine producers in more than 100 countries, said the innovative policy since the beginning of 2015 works significantly in solving the problem of insufficient circulating funds for the company.

"We are a high tech business with limited fixed assets as we pour more than half of our profits into research and development," Wang said.

"We used to face challenges in loan applications, but last year we obtained a loan of 2 million yuan and it rose to 7 million yuan this year thanks to the bank's high appraisal of our trademarks and patents," he said.

The policy is among the gains brought by a pilot reform beginning in 2015 in Pudong, where the district bureau has since been responsible for the administrative management of all of patents, trademarks, and copyrights and their acceptance of application and approval. Different government authorities used to be responsible for each of them.

"The practice, which abides by international conventions, will be expanded nationwide after proving effective and efficient in the district," said Lyu Guoqiang, director of the Shanghai Municipal Administration of Intellectual Property.