By December 24, 2007 China has received the 4,002,103rd patent application, marking the birth of the fourth million applications. The country used 15 years to see its first million applications in 2000 since the implementation of its Patent Law in 1985, 4 years and 2 months the second million, 2 years and 3 months the third, then 1 year and 6 months the fourth.

 

Except taking a shorter time to reach the fourth million, there are also two following characteristics compared with the previous three million:

 

1. Domestic invention patent application increases much more quickly. In the first three millions, invention patent application from China takes 47.8, 50.7 and 53.4 percent respectively, while in the fourth it takes 60.8 percent. Among the invention patent applications accepted by China competent authority, those from Chinese has higher growth rate than those from overseas. In 2006, for example, the former increased 30.8 percent compared with that in 2005, 20 percentage points higher than the latter during the same period.

 

2. Proportion of on-duty application increases steadily. In the first three millions, on-duty application occupies 41.8, 49.5 and 52.4 percent respectively, while in the fourth it is 53.9. This change results mostly from the increase of Chinese on-duty application. Among the first 3 million applications, on-duty application from Chinese takes 31.3, 39.0 and 41.2 percent respectively among all applications from China, while in the fourth million it jumps to 45.6 percent. While among the invention patent application, on-duty takes as high as 68.9 percent.

 

During the rapid growth of patent application in China, three-type patents and patent applicants have also seen structural changes, indicating the progress of Chinese independent innovation capacity and their level, and also representing that China’s patent system has played an more incentive function, public IP consciousness has been enhanced and enterprises have become the main part of innovation.

2007-12-28

2007-12-28