China Achieved Stable Improvement In Intellectual Property In 2019

On January 14, 2020, China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA) released the 2019 statistics on patent, trademark, GI (Geographical indication) and IC layout design in Beijing.

Patents

In 2019, 1.401 million patent applications for invention was filed with CNIPA, and 453,000 invention patents were granted. Besides the concluded 1.023 million patent applications for invention, 1.981 million patent applications for utility modal and 744,000 patent applications for design were concluded. The Chinese telecom giant Huawei Technology Co., Ltd. obtained 4,510 patents for invention, holding the first place among all Chinese firms (excluding Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan firms), followed by Sinopec and OPPO.

Top 10 Chinese firms in terms of granted patent inventions

By the end of 2019, the number of invention patents owned by every 10,000 people reached 13.3, completing in advance the goals set in the 13^th Five-Year Plan. The top three provinces (municipalities) with the largest number of invention patents per 10,000 people were Beijing (132.0), Shanghai (53.5) and Jiangsu (30.2).

Top 10 provinces (municipalities) with the largest number of invention patents per 10,000 people

CNIPA accepted 61,000 PCT patent applications (so called "international patent applications") in 2019, with 10.4% year-on-year growth. 57,000 of the PCT patent applications were from Chinese entities or individuals. The top three provinces (municipalities) for PCT patent applications were Guangdong (24,700), Beijing (7,200) and Jiangsu (6,600).

Provinces (municipalities) with more than 1,000 pct international patent applications

Trademarks

The number of trademark application filed with CNIPA in 2019 was 7.837 million, and 6.406 million trademarks were registered. By the end of 2019, the total number of registered trademarks had reached 25.219 million, with a year-on-year increase of 28.9%.

In 2019, totally 8.253 million trademark applications were concluded, and the average pendency of examination had been reduced to 4.5 months.

Others

In 2019, the total value of import and export of IP royalties reached 37 billion U.S. dollars. The total amount of patent and trademark pledge financing reached 151.5 billion yuan, with a year-on-year increase of 23.8%.

In 2019, the number of incoming patent applications for invention filed with CNIPA had reached 157,000, the number of incoming trademark applications filed with CNIPA had reached 255,000. The number of incoming patent and trademark applications in China continued to increase, which fully demonstrates the confidence and vitality of foreign investment in China.

Intellectual property was playing a more and more important role in building a sound and stable environment for business development and modernization of the country. The government persisted in improving the quality and efficiency of IP examination. The pendency for high-value patent applications shrunk to 17.3 months and the average pendency for trademark applications was curtailed to 4.5 months in 2019. User satisfaction index on patent examination quality reached 84.8. The government spared no efforts to build a fair and prosperous business environment, to establish a higher level of IP protection system, making the intellectual property rights as the driving force of innovation and economic development.

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