World Intellectual Property Organization recently published 2015 World Intellectual Property Index annual report (the “Report”); The number of invention patent applications in China surpassed that of the United States and Japan, over 1.1 million, making it the first country in the world to break millions.
In 2015, top 5 countries in patent application:
1. China 1,108,700
2. USA 589,400
3. Japan 318,700
4. South Korea 213,600
5. EPO 160,000
The number of patents counted in the “Report” is only the number of patent applications for invention. China's patents are divided into three categories: invention, utility model and design. According to the National Bureau of Statistics data: in 2015 all three categories of patent applications reached 2.6394 million, of which 1.1018 million are invention patents, making it 41.74% of the total applications.
According to China's National Bureau of Statistics data: in 2015 China's invention patent granted over 359,300, and the granting rate was 32.61%. Only the number of granted patent had exceed the total number of applications in Japan. And over 1 million applications of utility model and design patents were not included in this, the grant rate for these two were 77.59% and 84.28%.
WIPO statistics show that the number of PCT applications filed worldwide in 2015 was 217,200, up by 1.4% over the previous year. China's PCT patent applications were 29,800, the United States and Japan were 56,900 and 44,100.
The figure below shows the ranking of PCT filings for domestic enterprises created by the State Intellectual Property Office in 2015.
