China sees IP Development Quantity and Quality Indexes Rise in 2016

View: 2053     Date: 2017-02-06 12:47

According to the latest data released by the SIPO during the news conference held on January 19, 2017, China’s quantity and quality indexes of the intellectual property (IP) development in 2016 both increased. In particular, the number of domestic invention applications exceeded one million for the first time, where enterprises continued to be dominant in IP creation and utilization.

In 2016, the SIPO received 1.339 million applications for inventions, representing a 21.5% increase over 2015 and the six straight year of ranking the top of the world.

Over the last year, Chinese applicants filed 4,843 published patent applications in 18 “Belt and Road” countries other than China, up 47.1% from 2015. In reverse, the foreign applicants from “B & R” countries also filed 3,697 patent applications with the SIPO, which increased 18.2% on 2015. 

Besides the new filings, data related to administrative enforcement of patent law, cases involving requests for reexamination and invalidation, and the patent agency industry were also released at the conference.  The number of cases in administrative enforcement of patent law increased 36.5% to 48,916, and the Patent Reexamination Board (PRB) received 13,107 requests for reexamination and 3,969 requests for invalidation of patents. In 2016, 269 new patent agencies were established nationwide, and 4,954 persons passed the National Patent Agent Qualification Examination, representing the thriving development of the patent agency industry.

The spokesman of the SIPO also made a broad overview from the following four aspects. (1) China becomes the third country in the world with the number of domestic ownership of inventions exceeding one million, following the U.S. and Japan; (2) the percentage of domestic applications for inventions among all types of patent applications remained at 40% in 2016, and enterprises account for 60% of the filing and granting rates in domestic invention patent applications, representing the gradually-improving ability of Chinese innovators mainly featured by enterprises in creation and utilization of patents; (3) there still exists wide gaps between China and other countries on the patent layouts in some fields. Out of the 35 technology fields divided by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), 6 fields such as optics and engine are still dominated by the foreigner owned patents; (4) the demand of Chinese applicants for protecting patents overseas is growing rapidly with the number of international applications for PCT setting a new record, however, China still falls behind developed countries in global patent layout.

Source from: SIPO