On July 20, 2017, the State Intellectual Property Office of the P.R.C. (SIPO) held a news conference to introduce the statistical data and related situation of SIPO's main work in the first half of 2017. In the first half of 2017, China has seen 565,000 invention patent applications, up 6.1% on a year-on-year basis. 209,000 invention patents have been granted, of which the domestic granted invention patents reached 160,000 including 149,000 service inventions (93.1%) and 11,000 non-service inventions (6.9%). By the end of June, 2017, Mainland China has owned 1,227,000 invention patents, with 8.9 invention patents per 10,000 people. In the first half of 2017, SIPO accepted 21.6 thousand PCT International Patent applications, with an increase of 16.0% from a year earlier. Among them, 20 thousand national applications saw a 15.3% increase; 1.6 thousand foreign applications saw an increase of 26.0%; Guangdong province was ranked the top position with 11.9 thousand applications and Beijing, Jiangsu, Shanghai, Shandong and Zhejiang respectively have more than 500 PCT applications. What's more, PCT applications in the above 6 provinces and municipalities occupied 90% of the total amount of China.

 

According to the data from SIPO, in the first half of 2017, 31.8 billion yuan of patent pledge was added in China, with a year-on-year growth of 92%. 1,493 patent pledge projects were confirmed, with a year-on-year growth of 41%. Liaoning, Jiangsu, Shandong, Beijing and Tianjin led all provinces in amount granted while Shandong, Shaanxi, Anhui, Jiangsu and Guangdong were the top five in number of projects. In the near future, SIPO will strengthen communication with the People's Bank of China and China Banking Regulatory Commission, to build an examination mechanism in IP pledge, motivating banks in granting IP pledge loan. Moreover, SIPO will attract innovators in strategic emerging industries, service industries, rehabilitation therapy industries and overseas returnees by strengthening IP pledge service to support hi-tech industries development.  

 

The 2016 China Patent Data Report was based on a survey covering companies, universities, research institutions and individual inventors in 23 provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions. In the past decade from 2006 to 2016, the patent use rate of China roamed between 57% and 75%, and that number registered at 61.8% in 2016.  

Companies dominate all types of patentees with 67.8% in rate of patent use. The report also counted the patent commercialization rate of China, which stood at 46.0% in 2016.  Larger companies also tend to have a more potent desire to use their patents, or in other words, their patents might be easier to be put into use, according to a principal of IP Development and Research Center (IPDRC) under the State Intellectual Property Office (SIPO), who engaged in the edition of the report.