Recently, the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) added Chinese patent documents to its PATENTSCOPE database. With the addition of about 3 million documents from China, the number of patent documents at WIPO now reaches 32.5 million covering 34 countries and regions in the world.
PATENTSCOPE under WIPO provides access to PCT applications in full text format. The information may be searched by entering keywords, applicant name, international classification and other search criteria in multiple languages.
From now on, PATENTSCOPE users are now able to view bibliographical data for Chinese patents in English from 1985 through to 1995. Application since 1996 can be additionally viewed by Chinese description and claims.
Statistics from WIPO showed that, China received the most patent applications in the world in 2011. Addition of Chinese patent documents is a big step forward for PATENTSCOPE, and will give users an important way to understand the status of Chinese patents.
