Chinese companies' patent applications abroad increases in first half year

According to statistics from the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), European Patent Office (EPO) and Japan Patent Office (JPO), applications for invention patent by Chinese nationals with foreign patent authorities continued to keep smooth growth in the first half of 2009.

From this January to June, China filed 2,326 pieces of invention patent applications to USPTO, up 14.3%; EPO saw 765 pieces of invention patent application from China with a rise of 2.9%; and JPO received 433 applications, up 16.1%. Influenced by international financial crisis, in the same statistical term, the growth for all patent filings at the USPTO, EPO and JPO were 2%, 8% in red ink and 9.5% in red ink, too. The rise of invention patent applications from China was higher than the increase of applications received by USPTO, EPO and JPO.

From another point of view, in spite of financial crisis, among the invention patent applications filed by other countries to China in the first half of 2009, 11,080 were from the United States, down 8.9%; 12,811 from Europe, decreasing by 9.6% and 15,956 from Japan, dropping by 2.3%.

However, the absolute amounts were still 5 times, 17 times and 37 times than the numbers of applications filed by Chinese nationals to USPTO, EPO and JPO, indicating the gap between the invention patent applications filed by China to other countries and the applications filed by other countries to China.

(Source：IPR in China)

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