Intellectual property model city as a pioneering demonstration zone for deepening reform in the field of intellectual property, which is a gathering place for the protection and application of intellectual property rights. Does the model city contribute to the development of enterprise innovation? This paper uses the intellectual property model city pilot as the quasi natural experiment, based on the micro enterprise data of China Industrial Enterprise Database and China Patent Database from 2007 to 2015, using the progressive difference in differences method to test the impact of the intellectual property model city pilot policy on enterprise innovation, and identified the intermediary mechanism of intellectual property protection. The results show that the intellectual property model city pilot policy has significantly improved the level of enterprise innovation. The mechanism test shows that the intellectual property model city pilot policy has ultimately promoted the improvement of the level of enterprise innovation by increasing the supply of intellectual property systems and increasing the intensity of judicial protection of intellectual property rights. The heterogeneity analysis show that the intellectual property model city pilot policy has a significantly higher improvement effect on the innovation of state owned enterprises than non state owned enterprises, and has a significantly higher improvement effect on enterprise innovation in high tech industries than on traditional industry enterprises, and has a significantly higher improvement effect on enterprise innovation in the western region than in the eastern and central regions.