The State Intellectual Property Office (SIPO) convened a press conference on February 11, 2015 in Beijing and released relevant data concerning the number of granted invention patents in 2014. In 2014, SIPO accepted 928,000 applications for invention patent, increasing 12.5% compared to 2013 and ranking as the first of the world for fourth consecutive year, and granted 233,000 invention patents, among which including 163,000 domestic patents, increasing by 20,000 patents compared to 2013. By the end of 2014, valid domestic invention patents, which represent higher patent quality and reflect the technical and market ＆#118alue of patent, reached a total of 663,000 (Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan excluded), and an average of 4.9 invention patents per 10,000 persons. Data showed that the focus of China’s patent and invention had continued to shift toward invention patent which contains higher technical level, indicating the improvement of China’s level of innovation and the gaining importance of invention patent as the leading role in innovative development.

From the information disclosed by SIPO this time, we can see that the top 10 provinces/areas/cities (Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan excluded) with the most number of granted invention patents in 2014 are: Beijing (23,237 patents), Guangdong (22,276 patents), Jiangsu (19,671 patents), Zhejiang (13,372 patents), Shanghai (11,614 patents), Shandong (10,538 patents), Sichuan (5,682 patents), Anhui (5,184 patents), Shaanxi (4,885 patents) and Hubei (4,855 patents). In the ranking of domestic enterprises with the most number of granted invention patents (Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan excluded), Huawei Company stayed as the first with 2,409 patents; ZTE Corporation followed closely with 2,218 cases, which followed by Sinopec (1,913 patents), Hongfujin (524 patents), Ocean’s King Lighting (516 patents), BOE (484 patents), CNPC (476), State Grid Corporation of China (408 patents), China Star Optoelectronics Technology (362 patents) and H3C (336 patents).

SIPO also disclosed the top 10 provinces/areas/cities with the most number of invention patents by the end of 2014, which are, in order, Guangdong (111,878 patents), Beijing (103,638 patents), Jiangsu (81,114 patents), Shanghai (56,515 patents), Zhejiang (52,418 patents), Shandong (34,775 patents), Sichuan (21,209 patents), Hubei (18,825 patents), Liaoning (18,417 patents) and Shaanxi (17,575 patents).

In addition, SIPO accepted 26,169 international patent applications filed through Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) in 2014, with a year-on-year increase of 14.2%. Among the total amount, 24,007 applications were filed from inside of China, making up to 91.7% of the total amount and increasing 14.9% compared with 2013; and 2,162 applications were filed from outside of China, with a year-on-year increase of 6.7%. China has 18 provinces/areas/cities that filed for more than 100 PCT applications in 2014, among which Guangdong ranked as the first with 13,332 applications, followed by Beijing, Jiangsu, Shanghai and Zhejiang. The five provinces and cities filed altogether for 85% of the total amount of national PCT applications.

Mr. Gan Shaoning, Deputy Director of SIPO, mentioned in the press conference that China’s invention patents in 2014 mainly showed four features: 1. Amount of patents per 10,000 persons reached a new level and exceeded by 1.6 patents than the target the 12th Five-Year Plan set. 2. The structure of patent applications was obviously optimized. Among the total application, invention patents, patents for utility model and design patents respectively made up to 39.3%, 36.8% and 23.9% of the total amount. Invention patent surpassed the patent for utility model and ranked as the first among the three types of patents. 3. Dominant position of enterprises in creating intellectual property continually steadied, and enterprise continually played decisive effect in self-dependent innovation. 4. Among the 35 fields marked by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), ownership of Chinese domestic invention patent exceeded that of invention patents filed by foreign applicants in 22 fields, but the gap in the fields of optics and transportation were still rather obvious and patent portfolio in some technical fields needed to be further strengthened.

Date: February 12, 2015      
Source: State Intellectual Property Office