With the development of the market for technology, exploring the effect of intellectual property protection on technology trading is very important. This article studies this question with the patent trading data of China. We find that the higher the intensity of intellectual property protection, the more active firms are in the market for technology, with more patents traded. This result remains robust after considering endogeneity issues. The impact is mainly achieved by reducing transaction costs and increasing transaction returns. Heterogeneity studies show that companies with stronger financial constraints and companies in high-tech industries are more affected by the intensity of intellectual property protection in patent transactions. The findings enrich the literature on patent trading and provide important reference for policy supply.