The establishment of the WIPO-SMPG Shanghai IP Innovation Award is an important component of the Memorandum of Understanding on Development Cooperation in the Field of Intellectual Property, that was signed by the Shanghai Municipal Government and the World Intellectual Property Organization, or WIPO.

In 2019, the award was officially established with nine awards in the three categories of creation, protection and applications. Its goal is to commend and reward enterprises and institutions in Shanghai that have made outstanding achievements in high-quality creation, high-level protection and in the high-efficiency application of IP in key industries.

In October 2019, top officials at the 16th Shanghai International Intellectual Property Forum – Ying Yong, then mayor of Shanghai and Francis Gurry, then WIPO director-general – jointly signed the award certificate and presented medals and certificates to the winners.

This marked the first time that WIPO had cooperated with Chinese government to present the awards.