Recently, the State Intellectual Property Office (SIPO) released 2011 Annual Report of Chinese Valid Patents (hereinafter referred to as the Report), which shows that as of the end of 2011, China owned 2,740,000 valid patents and 84.1% were owned by Chinese applicants.
Of all the valid patents, 697,000 were patents for inventions, and 351,000 were owned by local Chinese applicants. This number is low as compared to 2,114,000 invention patents in the United States and 1,542,000 invention patents owned by Japan.
According to the Reports, the innovative capability of Chinese enterprises had been gradually improved. Till the end of 2011, domestic enterprises had owned 1,230,000 valid patents, accounting for 53.4% of all domestic valid patents.
The Report also showed that as of the end of 2011, the top five regions for most valid patents were Guangdong Province, Beijing, Shanghai, Jiangsu Province and Zhejiang Province.
Despite the rapid growth of patent applications, only 8.2% of Chinese valid patents is said to be able to be maintained for a life of more than 10 years, nevertheless the percentage for foreign patents is 32.8%.
