Feature

Statistics of the Patent Cases in Mainland China for the First Half of 2009

According to the statistics of the State Intellectual Property Office (SIPO) of Mainland China, the applications for and grants of the patent keep increasing for the first half of 2009; SIPO has accepted 426,000 patent applications, an increase of 23.1% over the same period a year ago; granted 252,000 patents, an increase of 31.3% over the same period a year ago. It is remarkable that the domestic applications for the patent in Mainland China account for 70% for the first time and domestic grants of the patent surpass the foreign grants for the first time.

Through analysis, the applications for and grants of the patent in Mainland China for the first half of 2009 have the following features:

1. The applications for and grants of the patent for invention have rapidly increased: the domestic applications for the invention patent account for 70% for the first time, while the domestic increase of the applications for the invention patent is almost 30% higher than the foreign increase; the domestic applicants obtain 33,443 invention patents, accounting for 50.8% of the total patents. Domestic grants of the invention patent outnumber the foreign grants for the first time.

2. Domestic applications for the patent in Mainland China have steadfastly increased: during the first quarter of 2009, domestic applications for the three types of patent in Mainland China increased slowly. Afterwards, the applications have increased by 28.9% over the same period a year ago.
3. Foreign entities’ applications for the patent in Mainland China for the first time have undergone a negative growth: under the impact of the financial crisis, multinational enterprises decreased the applications for the patent and adjusted the strategy of patent procurement. For the first half of the year, the patent applications of the foreign entities in Mainland China have decreased by 7.3%, among which South Korea has decreased by 29.6%, the US has decreased by 8.4% and Japan by 4.7%. However, in the fields of hybrid electric vehicle and medical device, the foreign applications have increased rather than decreased.

The tables below illustrate the detailed statistics for patent applications.