China Tops Global Invention Patent Filings

On December 11, WIPO released a World Intellectual Property Indicators 2012 in Geneva. The report shows that while the global economy continued to underperform, intellectual property (IP) filings worldwide kept growing strongly in 2011. According to the report, China received 526,000 invention patent applications, up 34.5%. China has surpassed the U.S. to become the largest patent filer in the world.
According to the report, SIPO overtook the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) in 2011 to become the largest patent office in the world, after having surpassed the Japan Patent Office (JPO) in 2010. “It is worth mention that China saw a 34.5% growth in invention patent filling in 2011, while China had the fastest-growing economy in 2011. In some developed countries, however, the invention patent fillings dropped by 5.4% in Europe, which the economic hardship in the area does this matter.” said WIPO
Chief Economist Carsten Fink.
In fact, China also saw an increase in patent besides patent fillings. “The invention patents saw an annual increase rate of 26.8% since 2001. SIPO granted 172,000 invention patents in 2011, 11 times of that in 2001. Among the patents granted in 2001, Chinese invention applicants were awarded close to two-thirds, a considerable rise compared with the fewer-than-one-third in 2001.
As of the end of September this year (2012), the number of valid invention patents hits 834,000, 444,000 of which were granted to domestic users, accounting for 53.3% of the total, up 36.2%. The proportion increased by 20% compared to the early 11th Five Year Plan in 2006.
“The increase in patent quantity and quality is a symbol of success for innovation capability, and for country’s overall strength and competitiveness,” the relevant leader of SIPO told CIP News reporter.
According to the report, the patent filings worldwide reached 2.14 million in 2011, up 7.8%, exceeding 7% growth for the second year in a row. In parallel, the patent grants worldwide also grew by 9.7% to nearly 1 million in 2011.

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