On January 19, the State Intellectual Property Office (SIPO) held a news conference in Beijing releasing the statistics and related situation of the major works in 2016. In 2016, all indexes - both quantity and quality ones - of the intellectual property (IP) development in China rose. The number of domestic inventions exceeded 1 million for the first time, and enterprises continued to play a dominant role in IP creation and utilization.
According to statistics released this time, in 2016, the SIPO received 1.339 million applications for inventions, which increased 21.5% compared with the previous year. The number has ranked top of the world for six successive years.
The data shows that in 2016, there were 4843 public patent applications filed by China in the “Belt and Road” countries (not including China), which increased 47.1% compared with the previous year. The were 18 countries to receive patent applications, which was three more compared with the previous year. The number of patent applications filed by the “Belt and Road” countries in China was 3697, which increased 18.2% compared with the previous year. Data related to administrative enforcement of patent law, cases involving requests for reexamination and invalidationt, and the patent agency industry was also released at the conference.
According to person-in-charge of the SIPO, a comprehensive analysis of the major statistics reveal the following four characteristics: 1) the number of domestic ownership of inventions in China exceeded 1 million, which made China the third country in the world with the number of domestic ownership of inventions exceeding 1 million, following the U.S. and Japan; 2) the creation of inventions in China improved both in terms of quantity and quality. The percentage of domestic applications for inventions among all types of patent application remained at 40% in 2016, with the enterprises’ applications for and authorization of inventions reaching over 60%. The patent creation and utilization ability of innovative subjects - mainly featured by enterprises - continued to rise; 3) compared with other countries, there still exists disparities between the patent layouts in some fields. Among the 35 technology fields divided by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), the number of domestic patent ownership in 29 fields was higher than the number of inventions filed by foreign countries in China, which was one more compared with the previous year. However, in 6 fields such as optics and engine, the disparities are still obvious; 4) the tendency of Chinese applicants applying for patents overseas is growing rapidly. During the implementation process of the “go global” strategy, numerous innovative enterprises which attached importance to and relied on IP for international competition appeared, and the number of international applications for PCT set a new record. However, China still falls behind developed countries in its ability of overseas patent layout.
