A good property right institution lays an effective foundation for improving the resilience of the industrial chain. The intellectual property model city policy as a tool for intellectual property governance is an innovative practice of the intellectual property system in the urban geographic space. Based on 280 urban panel data from 2003-2016, the paper used the DID method to test the effect of intellectual property model city policies on the improvement of industrial chain resilience, and explored its mechanism with the mediation effect model. The results indicate that the establishment of intellectual property model cities can significantly improve the level of urban industry diversification and innovation ability, and thus enhance the resilience of urban industrial chain. Knowledge diversification and government science and technology support are effective channels for the policy to improve the resilience of the industrial chain, but the effect has not reached its ideal state. Further analysis finds that there are regional and urban scale heterogeneity in the improvement effect of the implementation of the policy on the resilience of the industrial chain, among which the policy effect in the eastern and southern regions is more significant, and the policy effect in cities with medium population and above, as well as more economically developed regions, is more significant. The conclusions of the research provide empirical evidence for the research on intellectual property governance and industrial chain resilience, and provide reference for the government to coordinate resource allocation and cultivate industrial chain resilience.