On March 6, the European Patent Office (EPO) published that the patent filings of the Chinese enterprises in Europe increased 11.1% compared with last year, which was the strongest force driving the patent filings in EPO.

The EPO released that it received a total of 258000 patent filings in 2012 from all over the world introduced in EPO’s 2012 Annual Results in Brussels. This represents a 5.2% increase over 2011 and sets a new record for EPO patent filings.

It is learned that among the top 5 countries with most patent filings in EPO in 2012, China accounted for 7.3%, with a year-on-year growth of 1.1%, and is the fastest growing country. In the global list of patent filings, ZTE CORPORATION jumped to No.10 from No.33 in one year. Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. is the second Chinese enterprise which seated in the top 20 of the list of patent filings.

According to the statistics, digital and communication sector accounted for 42% of all the patent filings of China.

Date: March 12, 2013                 Source: Intellectual Property News