The impact of intellectual property rights protection on green innovation: A quasi-natural experiment based on the pilot policy of the Chinese intellectual property court

<abstract> <p>In the context of high-quality economic development in China, it is important to promote green innovation development by protecting intellectual property rights (IPR). Taking the pilot policy of the intellectual property courts in Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou for example in a quasi-natural experiment, this article examines the effect of IPR protection on the development of corporate green innovation and its mechanisms by using a difference-in-differences model and a mediating effect model based on Chinese enterprise data from 2011 to 2019. The study found that first, IPR protection promotes enterprise green technological innovation; second, IPR protection affects green innovation through enterprise financing constraints and R&amp;D investment; that is, increasing enterprise R&amp;D investment and alleviating enterprise financing constraints are two important channels through which IPR protection promotes enterprise green technological innovation.</p> </abstract>