Patent Data for the First Half Year of 2013 Revealing the Leading Position of Jiangsu, Beijing and Guangdong and the Steady Growth in Central and Western China

Provincial and national patent data of China for the first half of this year released recently, revealing that the State Intellectual Property Office (SIPO) had received 256,000 domestic patent applications for invention in the first half year of 2013, and granted 73,000 domestic patents for invention, with a growth of 27.4% and 4.3% respectively over the same period of last year. The evident growth of domestic invention patent applications indicated the constant optimizing of China’s patent application structure.

Jiangsu continued its leading position with 49,756 applications in the ranking by the number of patent applications for invention received in various provinces, followed by Guangzhou and Beijing, with 29,833 and 27,655 applications respectively, while Zhejiang and Shandong placed the forth and the fifth with 18,949 and 18,533 applications respectively. In the ranking by number of patent grants, Beijing topped the list with 10,726 patents, followed by Guangzhou with 10,148 patents, Jiangsu with 8,400 patents, Shanghai with 5,614 patents and Zhejiang with 5,437 patents in the top five. It was worth noting that compared with the same period of 2012, Beijing replaced Guangdong and topped the list of patent grants, Tianjin reached top 10 of received patent applications for invention replacing Liaoning, and Anhui obtained one seat in the top 10 of patent grants replacing Liaoning.

Generally speaking, the rankings by patent applications and patent grants changed little compared with those of last year, indicating that the provinces which had been strong in patent applications for years continued their comparativeness. The first echelon was still mainly the coastal provinces and cities, such as Jiangsu, Guangdong and Beijing, revealing that the quantity of patents is proportional to the economic development. The second echelon was leading by the central and western provinces with rapid economic development, such as Sichuan, Hubei and Shaanxi. Relying on their geographic advantages, these provinces maintained a steady growth in patent applications and grants. For example, Shaanxi Province actively explored patents from its large number of colleges and universities and scientific research institutions, obtaining a relatively rapid growth in quality of patents, which was also one of the reasons for its rapid increase of granted patents for invention.

Furthermore, most of the provinces and cities stayed the same in the rankings by patent applications and grants. The ranking by patent grants for Beijing and Shanghai is two places above their ranking by patent applications. This phenomenon indicated that Beijing and Shanghai have certain advantages in economic structure and has relatively more high tech companies. This was also one of the reasons why Beijing rose in the ranking by patent grants.

August 7, 2013                    Source: State Intellectual Property Office