The number of patents registered by overseas applicants in China surged by 23 percent in 2021, while the number of registered trademarks also rose, a government official from the CNIPA said, mirroring the improvement of China's intellectual property rights (IPR) system, as well as the expansion of overseas enterprises now operating in China.

In 2021, overseas applicants were licensed 110,000 patents for their inventions in China, up 23 percent on a yearly basis. They also registered 194,000 trademarks, up 5.2 percent year-on-year, Hu Wenhui, a spokesperson for the CNIPA, said at a press conference on Wednesday.

In particular, the number of licensed patents and registered trademarks held by US nationals increased by 32.1 percent and 17.3 percent, respectively, on a yearly basis in China, Hu said.

He attributed the phenomenon to the "firm confidence" that overseas companies have in China's IPR protection and the business environment.

Data revealed a rising trend in China's IPR applications in line with the country's economic growth. At the end of 2021, domestic companies held 1.98 million valid invention patents, up 22.6 percent on a yearly basis. Of those patents, about 1.2 million were held by high-tech companies.

Information technology management, computer technology and medical technology are three areas where China's patents have grown the fastest, Hu said.

He also noted that the number of China's high-value patents is rising, as by 2021, there were 7.5 high-value patents for every 10,000 people, up 1.2 compared with the previous year.

Zhao noted that the rising proportion of high-value patents shows that China has become a global patent power, as companies no longer just seek large numbers of patents, but are also attaching more importance to the quality of their patents.  

http://english.ipraction.gov.cn/article/ns/202201/371570.html

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