BEIJING -- China's award-winning patents have generated massive economic benefits, boosting the high-quality development of intellectual property, said the country's National Intellectual Property Administration (NIPA) on Monday.

As of the end of 2018, projects related to the 40 top winners of the 21st China Patent Award had created 660 billion yuan (about $98.7 billion) of sales revenue, 62.9 billion yuan in profit, and 136.3 billion yuan in exports, said Lei Xiaoyun, a NIPA official at a press conference in Beijing.

A total of 30 patents for invention and 10 patents for design won the gold awards of the 21st China Patent Award, which is the country's top award for patents, co-organized by the NIPA and the World Intellectual Property Organization since 1989.

According to Lei, the competition this year received a record-breaking 2,479 patent entrants.

"Of the 766 award-winning invention patents, 62 percent are in strategic emerging industries, and 83 percent are in patent-intensive industries," Lei said, adding that most award-winning patent projects involve key industries and core technologies.