Domestic applicants have contributed 45.7% of China's valid invention patents by the end of 2010, with the percentage increasing from 33.3% in 2006, released by "2010 Annual Report on China's Valid Invention Patents" (hereinafter referred to as the Report) recently issued by the State Intellectual Property Office (SIPO).
China has had 2.21 million valid patents by the end of 2010, in which Chinese applicants contributed as many as 82.4% (the percentage was 75.5% in 2006), while domestic contribution in the gross valid invention patents is still lower than that of foreign patents, despite of its fast development in the past few years. Separately, service inventions have accounted for 81.3% in 2010 (71.0% in 2006) in total invention patents that have been granted to domestic applicants and are still in force, the Report shows.
It also notes that economic booming regions in China tend to make more use of their advantages in valid invention patents to develop industries and to gear up regional economic transformation. By the end of 2010, Guangdong, Beijing, Shanghai, Jiangsu and Zhejiang have ranked top five in terms of valid invention patents and every one million Beijing citizens have had as many as 2,222 valid invention patents.
However, the number of valid patents for inventions in China still falls behind that in foreign countries, the Report pointed out. Statistics show that 46.7% valid domestic invention patents have been maintained for more than five years, 4.6% for over ten years, while in foreign countries 83.5% have a grace period over five years and 23.8% have been maintained for more than ten years. China is also fallen behind in the volume of high-tech related valid invention patents with ten-year or even longer grace period. In addition, among valid patents contributed by domestic enterprises, patents for inventions only took up 14.9% in 2010, only up less than 2% from the beginning of the Eleventh Five-Year Plan period.
The Report is of significant importance in guiding Chinese enterprises to improve their patent quality and to stress on technical innovations, said Li Shunde, Director of Law and Intellectual Property Faculty in Graduate School of China Academy of Social Sciences.
(Source:IPR in China)
