(Xinhua News Agency) Statistics from the State-Owned Asset Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC) of the State Council on July 8 show that the number of patent applications and grants of the state-owned enterprises (SOE) directly under the Central Government in 2007 increases dramatically. By the end of 2007, the number of effective patents possessed by SOEs directly under the Central Government totaled 45,547, up 26.6 percent year on year. Of this amount, effective patents of invention hit 15,681, accounting 34.4 percent of the total.

In 2007, SOEs directly under the Central Government files 21,374 patent applications, up 45.4 percent compared with the previous year, accounting for 3.1 percent of the total patent applications throughout the country. The number of applications of patent of invention reaches 11,004, increasing 53.9 percent compared with 2006, higher than the growth of the total patent application number. The number also accounts for 4.5 percent of the applications of patent of invention nationwide. Applications of patent of invention accounts for 51.5 percent of their total patent applications, higher than the nation’s average, which is 35.5 percent.

However, relative heads of SASAC points out that though the proportion of patent applications filed by SOEs directly under the Central Government increases to some extent, the number is still low and needs improving.

In that year, a total of 10,214 patents are granted to SOEs directly under the Central Government, up 35.7 percent year on year, including 2,056 patents of invention, which grows by 16 percent compared with the previous year. Of the patents granted, 20.5 percent are patents of invention, higher than the nation’s average, which is 19.3 percent.

The patents of SOEs directly under the Central Government are centrally distributed. More than 45 percent go to the top 10 enterprises of various kinds of patent lists. The four enterprises, China Petrochemical Corp. (Sinopec), China National Petroleum Corp., China South Industries Group Corp. and Baosteel Group Co. Ltd., are in the top five in the lists of patent application, patent granted and effective patent possession.

Meanwhile, at the 10th China Patent Prize, a total of 52 inventions from 36 SOEs directly under the Central Government win awards, accounting for 32.7 percent of the total winning projects. Three inventions from Sinopec, China Guodian Corp. and General Research Institute for Nonferrous Metals win the gold prizes and 49 inventions from other SOEs directly under the Central Government win patent excellence prize.