China has seen a big improvement in intellectual property rights
(IPRs) protection, with patent applications increasing by over 20
percent for five consecutive years, said the State Intellectual
Property Office (SIPO).
Both domestic and foreign companies have attached great
importance to patent applications, the SIPO said.
In 2005, the SIPO received 476,264 patent applications,
according to its annual report.
"In the first four months of this year we have received 155,800
patent applications, an increase of 20 percent compared with the
same period of last year," said Lu Guoliang, director-general of
the International Cooperation Department of the SIPO.
Last year Samsung Electronics of South Korea was the top foreign
corporation in terms of patent applications in China, submitting
3,508 during the year.
Japan's Matsushita Electric ranked second on the list and Royal
Philips of the Netherlands was third.
Among the top 10 corporations, five are from Japan and three are
from South Korea.
IBM was the only US company that appeared on the top 10
list.
As for domestic firms, Huawei Technology topped the number of
patent applications last year, with 3,409.
Other domestic companies on the top 10 list include ZTE
Telecommunications, Chongqing Li Fan (Group) and Chang An Auto
(Group).
According to the SIPO, most of the domestic applications were
patents for utility models and industrial designs, while the
majority of the foreign patents were for inventions.
However, in terms of patents for inventions, domestic
applications increased much more than foreign ones.
China was listed among the top 10 countries for patent
applications for the first time in 2005.
The fast growth in patent applications can be attributed to the
nation's policy of encouraging self-innovation, said Sun Pingping
from the SIPO.
Sun said companies have become the largest applicants in recent
years, replacing those from individuals. Patentees from academic or
research institutes are another important part of the total number
of applications.
(China Daily May 31, 2006)