According to the China Valid Patent Report 2012 issued by SIPO recently, domestic valid patents maintain rapid growth and the structure thereof are significantly optimized. Domestic patents' share of the total saw a year-on-year growth. As of the end of 2012, China owns cumulative 3 million domestic valid patents, representing 85.6% of the total, up 1.5% and 3.2% respectively than those in 2011 and the end of the Eleventh Five-Year Plan. Meanwhile, domestic invention patents amounted to 473,000, up 3.7%. The share of the total grows to 54.1%.

As revealed in the report, domestic enterprises and colleges and universities are the major innovators. Capacities of domestic enterprises to utilize and protect IPRs are continuously enhancing. As of the end of 2012, domestic enterprises own 1.812 million valid patents, representing 60% of the total for the first time. Meanwhile, a new record of valid inventions was hit by domestic colleges and universities; awareness to protect IPR was further strengthened. In 2012, 97,000 valid invention patents were owned by colleges and universities. The five most prolific universities are Zhejiang University, Tsinghua University, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Harbin Institute of Technology and Beihang University.

According to the report, as of the end of 2012, the five most prolific provinces are Guangdong (79,000 valid inventions), Beijing (70,000), Jiangsu (45,000), Shanghai (40,000) and Zhejiang (36,000). Top five provinces in valid invention patents owned by per 10,000 population are Beijing (34.5), Shanghai (17.2), Guangdong (7.5), Tianjin (7.5) and Zhejiang (6.5). Fortunately, based on the advantages in patents, most of the provinces mentioned above facilitating regional industrial transformation and upgrading, promoting a steady and sustainable development in economic growth.

Despite fruitful achievements have been made in patents filings and granting in 2012, there are some problems worthy of attention. The invention patents which maintained over 10 years, are 5.5% from domestic and 26.1% are from abroad. Valid invention patents owned by foreign innovators amounted to 105,000, four times than those owned by domestic innovators. Efforts should be exerted to utilize patents owned by domestic innovators.

Source: China IP News