TIPS® Taiwan Intellectual Property Special
China Updates
Patent Application Filing Continues to Grow in China
(1)Patent Applications (Including Invention, Utility Model and Design) from 1997 to 2006
|
Year
|
Total
|
Domestic
|
Foreign
|
|
1997
|
114,208
|
90,071
|
24,137
|
|
1998
|
121,989
|
96,233
|
25,756
|
|
1999
|
134,239
|
109,958
|
24,281
|
|
2000
|
170,682
|
140,339
|
30,343
|
|
2001
|
203,573
|
165,773
|
37,800
|
|
2002
|
252,631
|
205,544
|
47,087
|
|
2003
|
308,487
|
251,238
|
57,249
|
|
2004
|
353,807
|
278,943
|
74,864
|
|
2005
|
476,264
|
383,157
|
93,107
|
|
2006
|
573,178
|
470,342
|
102,836
|
(2)Top Ten Foreign Countries Filed New Patent Applications from 2003 to 2006
|
Ranking
|
2003 New Filing
|
2004 New Filing
|
2005 New Filing
|
2006 New Filing
|
|
1
|
Japan
|
24241
|
Japan
|
30444
|
Japan
|
36221
|
Japan
|
37848
|
|
2
|
TheUnited States
|
12221
|
The United States
|
16187
|
The United States
|
20395
|
The United States
|
23494
|
|
3
|
Korea
|
5015
|
Korea
|
6660
|
Korea
|
9300
|
Korea
|
10596
|
|
4
|
Germany
|
4522
|
Germany
|
5917
|
Germany
|
7502
|
Germany
|
8676
|
|
5
|
France
|
1941
|
The Netherlands
|
2960
|
The Netherlands
|
3988
|
The Netherlands
|
3721
|
|
6
|
TheNetherlands
|
1376
|
France
|
2465
|
France
|
3190
|
France
|
3614
|
|
7
|
Switzerland
|
1374
|
Switzerland
|
1744
|
Switzerland
|
2106
|
Switzerland
|
2370
|
|
8
|
TheUnited Kingdom
|
1314
|
The United Kingdom
|
1401
|
Italy
|
1632
|
The United Kingdom
|
1813
|
|
9
|
Italy
|
765
|
Italy
|
1167
|
The United Kingdom
|
1613
|
Italy
|
1699
|
|
10
|
Sweden
|
694
|
Sweden
|
899
|
Sweden
|
1101
|
Sweden
|
1492
|
According to the above statistics, the total amount of China’s new patent applications in 2006 has reached 5,731,786, which is over five times the number of 1997. Due to the large quantity of the applications in China, Japan, the top one position of the patent application in the world has been replaced by China in 2006. In addition, the amount of invention applications in 2006 has grown as 21.4% when compared with that of 2005. From year 2000 to 2006, the total number averagely grows more than 20% per year.
In 2006, Japan filed 37,848 patent applications in China, which was still the top one among all the countries. However, Japan’s growth rate in 2004 was 25.6% and it became lower to 19% in 2005. The growth rate continues to slide down to 4.5% in 2006. Accordingly, the growth rate might not be over 10% anymore in the future. Meanwhile, although the U.S. also remains the second place in the total amount of patent applications in China, the growth rate is also getting down. In 2004, it grew as high as 32.5%, which achieved the peak. Then, the growth rate became 26% in 2005 and it also slide down to 15.2% in 2006. Consequently, assuming that the growth rate of the U.S. will be around 15% in the future.
According to the statistics from the SIPO in the year of 2007, the number of patent application filings continued to grow in China. From January to April this year, a total of approximately 1,715,00 patent applications including invention, utility model and design applications, had been filed at the SIPO, which is a growth of 10.1% as compared to the same period last year. During the same period, the SIPO had granted approximately 110,000 applications, which is a growth of 46.4% comparing to the same period last year. The SIPO had pointed out the number of design applications has increased the most with a growth of 21.5%, while the number of utility model applications had decreased 0.5%. The number of invention applications has increased for 9.7%.
In light of the increasing number of patent applications, the SIPO has continued to strive for more speedy examination and procedures. At the moment, the average time for examining an invention application, including conducting the substantive examination, is approximately 22 months. While the examination time needed for a utility model and a design application is 9 months and 6 months respectively. Lastly, the examination time for reexamining an invalidation case is about 13 months.
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