Over a million patent applications filed last year in China

BOFIT Viikkokatsaus / BOFIT Weekly Review 2016/48

The latest survey from the UN’s World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) notes that over 1.1 million patent applications were submitted to China’s patent office in 2015. While the number of patent applications globally rose over 8 %, they were up 19 % in China. China’s growing significance on the R&D front was evident in the fact that the number of submitted patents to China’s patent office equalled the number of the next three countries combined (United States, Japan and Korea). China’s patent office also received the most applications for trademark and industrial design protections. 

Last year over 1.2 million patents were granted globally, an increase of 5 % from 2014. Most of the increase came from China. China’s patent office granted nearly 360,000 patents last year, making it the largest patent office in the world, surpassing the United States. WIPO estimated that there were 10.6 million patents in force last year, of which 25 % were in the United States, 18 % in Japan and 14 % in China.

China’s central and local governments strongly support patent activity, which has led to an emphasis on quantity, rather than quality, of patent applications submitted. Moreover, the Chinese still mostly seek protection under domestic patents. The number of international patent applications severely lags e.g. the US, Japan and Germany. Nevertheless, it seems that China is developing rapidly both in terms of patent quality and international applicability. The Chinese telecom giants Huawei and ZTE have for years been ranked among the three largest international patent seekers (PCT).

Chinese R&D spending amounted to 2.1 % of GDP last year. In the US, R&D spending is 2.7 % of GDP and the OECD average is about 2.4 % of GDP.

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