In the first quarter of this year, 8308 applications for patent for invention were examined, 35.2% increase over 6143 of the same period last year.  This year's number for utility model was 15361, 8% over 14224 of last year while the backlog of design applications was utterly eliminated. 

For a relatively long period, due to the mixture of many factors, the speed of patent examination of State Intellectual Property Office (SIPO) could not catch up with that of the increase of patent applications.  Some inventions did not obtain effective protection due to the timely patent examination and grant.  Viewing the serious challenges, SIPO attached great importance and adopted numerous measures, for example, recruiting new examiners and updating its automation systems, to speed up patent examination and increase examination quality. 

According to its officials, to accommodate the new situation after China's accession to WTO, in particular, a new wave of increase of patent applications, SIPO's examination departments are working on new measures to increase their efficiency.

2002-05-10

2002-05-10