Abstract: The cultivation of high-value patents is the ballast stone for China to build a powerful intellectual property nation. Based on the definition of high-value patents by the State Intellectual Property Office, a full-sample micro-patent database is used to initially measure high-value patents, reveal their theoretical basis, historical evolution and internal structure. The major empirical findings are that: (1) high-value patents outperform non-high-value patents in terms of patent quality, innovation speed and original innovation; (2) the number of high-value patents is rising; (3) More than two thirds of the high-value patents are applied by firms; (4) industry-academia cooperation is an important channel to promote the development of high-value patents; and (5) patents applied by foreign applicants are relatively more valuable. In view of the problems in the development of high-value patents, specific policy recommendations are proposed: to further narrow down and clarify the statistical scope of high-value patents; to improve the firm-oriented and market-oriented high-value patent creation mechanism; to strengthen the in-depth industry-academia cooperation to promote the collaborative application of intellectual property rights; to strengthen the incentives for the creation, transformation and application, evaluation and protection of non-service patents; and to promote the open cooperation in patent development under the new development pattern, etc.