Source: China IP News

In the past decade from 2006 to 2016, the patent use rate of China roamed between 57% and 75%, and that number registered at 61.8% in 2016.  Companies are proficient in in patent use, continuing to showing their power as a significant type of innovation force in the nation, according to a survey report on patent data of the nation released by SIPO recently.  This is the second time for China to release such annual report.  In addition to palpable increase in efficiency of patent use, demand for patent protection remains high in China.  The report also states the high risk of patents being infringed for small and micro companies while it is difficult for them to enforce their rights.

Companies dominate all types of patentees with 67.8% in rate of patent use.  The report also counted the patent commercialization rate of China, which stood at 46.0% in 2016.  Larger companies also tend to have a more potent desire to use their patents, or in other words, their patents might be easier to be put into use, according to a principal of IP Development and Research Center (IPDRC) under the State Intellectual Property Office (SIPO), who engaged in the edition of the report. "In general, the bigger the company, the higher the patent use rate.  In terms of types of patents, the use rates of micro companies’ valid invention patent, utility model and design are between 50% and 60%, all lower than those of companies of larger size."Indeed, strength in use and commercialization of patents is an important parameter in determining patents’ value.  This means as much to Gao Haichun, General Manager of China Otsuka Pharmaceutical Company, as to anybody. "In recent years, Otsuka’s invention filing (out of all types of patents) percentage and commercialization rate of core patents both surpassed 60% through our efforts in further optimizing patent structure.  The annual sales revenue of our company’s patent-reliant product has increased by one third year on year."

 "Among the patentees with the number of valid patents reaching certain scale, the more patents one has, the higher proportion of patents which have not yet been commercialized," said the IPDRC principal.  The reason is that such patentees have used patents to solidify technology reserve and to build product image so as to popularize their products and establish product standard besides patent commercialization.  At the same time, according to the report, some micro companies and universities’ lack of skill on patent, hamstringing the overall strength of the nation in attaining high value from patents.

Strengthening patent use and realizing patent value have become an indispensable demand for China to implement its innovation-driven strategy.  "At present, China is still in short supply of high-value patents and slow in patent use, which is not ideal for full play of innovation and entrepreneurship.  China should further beef up patent protection and use so as to develop an operation mechanism for backing up innovation and serving mass entrepreneurship and innovation," said Li Shunde, Researcher of Institute of Law of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.