Chinese patent filings lead the world in 2021 amid innovation
A recent report showed that China secured the top spot in terms of global patent filings in 2021, well ahead of all other countries, which highlighted its strong momentum in building a country focused on innovation.
China’s Intellectual Property (IP) Office received 1.59 million of the 3.4 million patent applications filed worldwide in 2021, according to the World Intellectual Property Indicators (WIPI) report released this week.
Patents filed in China were of a similar magnitude to the combined total of the next 12 countries ranked second to 13th, according to WIPI, which compiled its latest data based on information from some 150 countries and regions.
In 2021, China’s high-value invention patents stood at 7.5 per 10,000 people, 1.2 more than in 2020, according to National Bureau of Statistics data released in August 2022.
The country’s innovation in sectors such as next-generation telecommunications, artificial intelligence (AI), quantum computing and clean energy is particularly striking.
China’s share in the global pie
A report released by the National Intellectual Property Administration (NIPA) in 2021 found that China’s patent filings in 6G technology occupied more than 30% of the global total, while China’s patent applications in AI accounted for about 70% of the global total, according to an indicator released in November by the China Center for Information Industry Development.
Chinese companies’ invention patent applications in quantum computing, a cutting-edge technology sector, jumped from 137 in September 2020 to 804 in October 2022, according to China’s technology patent filing ranking list. global quantum computing.
The International Energy Agency (IEA) published a report in March 2022 titled “Tracking Clean Energy Innovation: Focus on China” which indicated that China has become a key player in energy patents in a short time, especially in strategic sectors where Chinese inventors account for a growing share of global activity, including solar photovoltaic (PV), electric vehicles (EV) and lighting technologies.
In the 2018/2019 period, Chinese inventors filed about six times the number of international patents they filed in 2008/2009 for batteries and solar PV, and eight times the number for EV technologies, according to the IEA.
In addition, about 80 percent of Chinese patents in energy-related climate change mitigation technologies are protected overseas, indicating their improved quality.
The fastest growth rate
The WIPI report also showed that China recorded a 17.6% annual growth in patents in force in 2021, the fastest growth in the world, overtaking the United States to become the first in terms of net patent growth. enforceable.
By the end of September 2022, Chinese patents in force exceeded 4 million and more than a third of them were from strategic emerging industries, according to NIPA.
Among them, those held by the country’s private sector have increased significantly.
China’s top 500 private enterprises in 2022 recorded 53.6 percent annual growth in patents in force, according to data released by the All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce in September.
China has also seen substantial growth in industrial design. It received applications containing 805,710 designs in 2021, corresponding to more than 53% of the global total. China now has the largest number of industrial design registrations in force in the world.
(Contributed by Xinhua)
