After being firstly listed in the top ten countries in respect of PCT applications in 2005, China surpassed Britain to be the sixth in 2008 with a growth rate more than 10%. The increased investment in S&D results in big progress in patent applications by China, said reports made by Thomson Scientific.

Over 20%'s annual growth rate

"With the deepened understanding of the PCT system, there are more and more Chinese applications using PCT channel to apply patents; especially after 2002, the growth rate for the PCT patent applications is over 20%," said related principal of the PCT department of State Intellectual Property Office (SIPO).

China became the state party in 1994 and had 103 PCT applications at that time; however in 2008, PCT applications in 2008 reached 6,089. From January to November this year, PCT applications surpassed 6,500. According to statistics revealed by SIPO, Chinese PCT application growth, which is nearly 50%, is the fastest comparing to the main developed countries during the period from 1996 to 2007, higher than South Korea, the U.S., and Japan.

The top five industries have the most PCT applications in China, including communication technology; medicine, veterinary, and hygienics; organics Chemistry; biochemistry, wine, enzymology, and Genetic Engineering; computing, calculating, and accounting. By the end of 2008, Chinese PCT applications are 25,700, and 80% are from the above five industries.
                                                                            　　　　　　　　Source:IPR in China