Recently, the State Intellectual Property Office of China released the status report on China’s Utility Model Patent System and Development. According to the report, SIPO granted in 2011 a total of 408,000 utility model patents, which were 18.6% higher over the previous year. By the end of 2011, the valid utility model patents granted by SIPO were 1,121,000.
The statistics show that significant increase has been made in China in utility model patent system. In 1997, the number of China’s utility model patent applications exceeded 50,000, ranking No. 1 in the world for the first time. The utility model applications exceeded 200,000 in 2008, 300,000 in 2009, and 400,000 in 2010. In 2011, the number reached 585,000. In 2000, China’s applications for utility model accounted for 42% of the total number of world’s utility model applications, and 83% of the world’s total number by 2010.
In the past ten years, the requests for invalidation of utility model patents obviously decreased. In 2002, the number of invalidation request for utility model patents was 756, accounting for 1.31% of the year’s granted utility model patents (57,484). In 2011, the number of invalidation requests for utility model patents was 1,323, accounting for only 0.32% of the year’s granted utility model patents (408,110).
The utility model system is welcomed due to its preliminary examination system which simplifies the examination procedures, shortens the examination period and reduces the application expenses, and thus gives incentives to the Chinese SMEs creation.
The utility model patent system was established at the time when Chinese patent system was established and it is an important part of the patent system.
