With a high demand of patent agents and lawyers from mainland China, Hong Kong's quest to become the region's trading hub for intellectual property (IP) assets may soon be a reality.

China, being the world's number one patent granter last year, approved 1.26 million applications for domestic protection. This was a jump from 31% recorded the year before. The State Intellectual Property Office also announcedd that it is set to grant two million patents a year by 2015.

With that being said, mainland inventors have also increased their filings to seek patent protection outside of China. From the statistics itself, the overseas patent applications filed last year jumped to 13.6% to 18,627.

Singapore also is poised to take a slice of this fast-expanding market as it edges out Hong Kong. Singapore, as noted in a report. already has a system in place to grant original patents which Hong Kong still does not have. At present, Hong Kong-filed patents must have their aplications examined by patent offices in places such as Britain, Beijing or Europe.