Objective　To investigate the requirements for patent knowledge in postgraduate nurs-ing students so as to provide a basis for nursing patent education. Methods　Full-time nursing postgradu-ates from 60 colleges and universities were investigated by self-directed questionnaires and a total of 119 validated questionnaires were returned. The survey included: general information; learning requirements for nursing patent knowledge (learning content and forms

incentive system and learning platforms learning approaches). Five-point Likert scale below was used: 1-Strongly disagree

2-Disagree

3-Neither agree nor disagree

4-Agree

5-Strongly agree. All statistical analyses were performed with IBM SPSS software (version 21.0). Quantitative data were expressed as mean±standard deviation. Ordered categorical variables were compared between two groups and among above three groups with use of the Mann Whitney rank sum test and the Kruskal-Wallis test respectively. P<0.05 was considered statistically significant. Results　There was no significant difference in the effect of types of postgraduate (professional and academic) on the re-quirement for nursing patent knowledge in postgraduate (P>0.05)

while significant differences were observed in those of paper publishing

project participation and patent application (P<0.05). Conclusion　Nursing patent education can be well established only under the strong supports from the universities

faculties

su-pervisors as well as students

thereby developing the innovation of postgraduates.