In the current environment where uncertainties are increasing, enhancing export resilience can help mitigate external economic fluctuations and thereby promote stable economic development. Therefore, in the complex and volatile international trade environment, how to fully leverage institutional support and policy backing to effectively enhance export resilience is particularly critical and urgent. This paper, based on a quasi-natural experiment of the national intellectual property demonstration cities policy, utilized the data matched from the China Customs Database and the Industrial Enterprises Database to examine the impact of this policy on the export resilience of local enterprises. The findings are as follows: (1) The implementation of the national intellectual property demonstration cities policy significantly enhances the export resilience of enterprises in the demonstration cities and improves their ability to bear external risks. (2) The heterogeneity analysis revealed that the policy′s effect on enhancing export resilience is more pronounced in high-profitability enterprises, non-state-owned enterprises, and regions with well-established intellectual property protection. Additionally, using prefecture-level cities as research samples and extending the study period to 2009-2022, we found that the positive effect of the national intellectual property demonstration cities policy on export resilience still exists. (3) The mechanism analysis showed that the key mechanisms through which the policy enhances export resilience are diversification of exports and improvement in export technological complexity. This paper has enriched the research on the relationship between the national intellectual property demonstration cities policy and export resilience and improves the understanding of the mechanisms and effects of this policy on enterprise export resilience. It will also provide important policy references for fully leveraging the role of national intellectual property demonstration cities in enhancing export resilience.