The number of international patent applications from China grew sharply in the first half of this year, showing that Chinese companies have sharpened their edge in global intellectual property competition, according to industry insiders.

Chinese applications with the United States Patent and Trademark Office increased 31.7 percent to 3,063 filings from January to June, while Japan's Patent Office received more than 500 applications from China during the same period, up 16.9 percent from a year ago.

The number of applications from China to the European Patent Office surpassed 1,000 over the period, a rise of 32 percent year-on-year, far higher than the 1.3 percent growth in total filings.

International patent applications from China mainly deal with the telecommunications industry.

Last year some 10 percent of total telecommunications patent applications worldwide came from China as the sector continues to embrace innovation with development of emerging technologies like cloud computing, an Internet-based system of shared computing.

Since the central government mounted a national intellectual property drive in 2008, the innovation capacity, awareness of intellectual rights and international competitiveness at China's companies improved substantially, according to the State Intellectual Property Office (SIPO).

A growing number of Chinese companies are now eyeing overseas markets and recognize the importance of intellectual property protection.

Data from the World Intellectual Property Office (WIPO) show that nearly 8,000 applications filed under the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) came from China in 2009, an increase of 29.7 percent over 2008.

China replaced France as the fifth-largest source of applicants after the US, Japan, Germany and South Korea.

But a big gap remains with the top three powerhouses in international patent applications. The US registered 45,790 last year, followed by Japan with nearly 30,000 and Germany with more than 16,700. China's companies, institutions and individuals filed 7,946 PCT applications last year.

There is also a shortfall in the quality of international patents from China, according to SIPO.

Within the PCT system, not all international patent applications can withstand scrutiny in so-called national stage entry filings.

WIPO data show that each of China's PCT filings were approved by the equivalent value of 0.76 of a nation on average in 2008, lower than the US and Japan's average of 2.5 and South Korea's 1.6 average.

Among the measures SIPO suggests is more effort tracking industrial trends, monitoring technological innovation and improving management of intellectual property.

Efficient use of patent documentation and development of human resources in both R&D and intermediary services are also expected to help improve innovation capacity, experts said.

SIPO processed 467,000 domestic patent applications between January and June, up 9.6 percent year-on-year.

Of them, 12 percent were from abroad, a rebound after the worldwide economic turmoil of the past two years.

US applications for creation patents - the most stringent - increased 15.6 percent in China to 12,803 filings, four times those from China to the US.

European and Japanese creation patent applications surged even more, to more than 14,000 and 16,000 respectively, rising 11.3 and 4 percent.

(Source: China Daily)

2013-07-17