According to the recently released the USPTO (United States Patent and Trademark Office) Performance and Accountability Report for Fiscal Year 2007, for the first time, China's mainland obtained over 1,000 registrations in both patent and trademark at the PTO in FY 2007, registering at 1,139 and 1,020 respectively, up 31.2% and 46.3% year on year.  Patent grants moved from 15th to 14th while trademark reached 9th from 11th.

In terms of the absolute numbers, both in patent and trademark, in particular patent, China were still dwarfed by leading developed countries.  Japan and Germany acquired 36,656 and 10,256 respectively, edging China by 32.2 times and 9 times.  China also gave up 2.2 times and 3.6 times on the their 2,216 and 3,708 trademark registrations.

(China IP News)