Using the provincial-level panel data during 1998-2003,this paper empirically studies the impacts of foreign direct investment(FDI) on the regional innovation capacity in China.Taking the number of patent applications as the evaluation index of regional innovation capacity,this paper examines FDI's spillover effects on the number of all patent applications and on each type of patent applications which include invention patent,utility model and design.The study shows that FDI does have positive and strong effects on all patent applications.Meanwhile,unlike the traditional way of splitting regions by geographical locations,this paper divides the regions into Hi-innovative region,Medium-innovative region and Low-innovative region according to different innovation capacities for a better understanding of FDI's spillover effects on innovation.