Rediscovering the Awakening Dragon, Part IV: A Fast-growing Force in IPR

A New Stage

Among all types of patents, invention patent is perhaps the most critical indicator of a country's innovative capability.

China has maintained the world's fastest growth in terms of the volume of invention patents granted.

As of July 16, 2012, China had granted a total of 1 million invention patents, according to official statistics.

It only took the nation 27 years from having zero patents to achieve that amount since China's first patent law went into effect in 1985. China spent six years to see its 10,000th invention patent in 1991, and another 12 years to total 100,000 invention patents in 2003. But it only took the emerging power nine years to increase that number from 100,000 in 2003 to the 1 million in 2012.

Over the past decade, granted invention patents in China rose by an average of nearly 27 percent annually. The country granted 172,000 invention patents in 2011, nearly 11 times the number granted in 2001.

Furthermore, domestic invention patent applications grew at an average annual rate of nearly 37 percent over the past decade, twice faster than applications filed by foreign entities.

Of the total invention patents granted in China, the proportion of domestic applications rose from less than one-third in 2001 to more than 50 percent in 2009 and then to nearly two-thirds in 2011.

By the end of November 2011, a total of 684,163 valid patents had been authorized by the SIPO in China, among which 342,466 are domestic patents, amounting to 50.1% of the total number. This is the first time China's domestic valid invention patents have surpassed those submitted by foreign applicants.

So far, the numbers of China's domestic invention patent applications, granted invention patents and valid invention patents have all surpassed the foreign invention patent, marking that China's development in the IPR sector has entered a new stage.

【1】 【2】 【3】 【4】 【5】 【6】

Recommended