Abstract: Based on the factors of law enforcement, this paper firstly measures the level of regional intellectual property protection then makes use of the provincial panel data to empirically test the influence of intellectual property protection on the regional economic growth, focusing on the interactive effect of intellectual property protection and trade openness on the regional economic growth. The results show that intellectual property protection has a significant positive impact on regional economic growth, but this impact will change along with the changes of trade?openness. The economic growth effect of intellectual property protection in the low-income provinces is significantly negative, which is closely related to the low level of their trade openness. The protection of intellectual property rights in high-income provinces can significantly promote their economic growth, but when the level of trade openness is too high, it will turn to be negative impacts on the economic growth. The interactive effects of intellectual property protection and trade openness can have significantly different regulatory effects on regional economic growth due to their different income levels.

Key words: intellectual property protection; economic growth; interaction effect