"China now has a huge number of design patent applications," Cao Donggen, deputy director general of the Patent Management Division of the State Intellectual Property Office (SIPO), said at a recent seminar that attracted more than 100 experts, government officials, scholars and entrepreneurs.

Design patent applications with SIPO totaled 400,000 in 2010 and that number surged another 54 percent in the first eight months of this year, he said.

The meeting discussed hot topics such as new development trends in industrial designs and analyzed several cases of design patent disputes.

(Source: China Daily)