The Linkage between Sustainable Development Goals 9 and 11: Examining the Association between Sustainable Urbanization and Intellectual Property Rights Protection

United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 9 and 11 advocate industrial innovation and sustainable cities, respectively, although how sustainable urban development ensures the protection of innovative achievements remains understudied. Employing the Spatial Durbin Model, this study examines how the protection of intellectual property rights (IPRs) has affected sustainable urbanization using the case of the Huaihai economic zone (HEZ), China. Adopting a theoretical and empirical approach, the study seeks to understand how sustainable urbanization affects the protection of IPRs, and explores the spatial spillover from the perspectives of economic growth structure, technological progress, economic agglomeration and social welfare enhancement, taking into account also the protection of IPRs at a sub-national level. The results indicate that sustainable urbanization is positively related to the protection of IPRs (as can be understood from the four abovementioned aspects of sustainable urbanization), that the spatial spillover effects of sustainable urbanization on the protection of IPRs and distance from the central city are significant, and that foreign direct investment (FDI)—a significant driving force in China's urbanization—has a negative impact.