Abstract: The patent system has becomes an important system for constructing an innovative country. It plays a positive role in promoting scientific and technological progress. However, there is no quantitative research on the interdependent relationship between patent and scientific and technological progress. Ten indicators, including rate of patents granted, number of invention patents granted, patent effective accumulation, etc are selected. By using the method of gray correlation analysis, the relevance of these patent indicators to the scientific and technological progress is quantitatively studied based on panel data. It is concluded that there is a close relationship between patent and scientific and technological progress. It also reveals that different modes of operating patent system have different impact on scientific and technological progress. The relevance of patent to the scientific and technological progress varies with different patent indicators. The conclusion that rate of patents granted has the greatest influence on scientific and technological progress, meanwhile the influence of number of invention patents granted and PCT applications on scientific and technological progress is relatively small is drawn.