China owns 4.66m invention patents

China has owned 4.66 million valid invention patents by the end of October, 235,000 more since June, an official from the country's top intellectual property regulator said on Friday.

Heng Fuguang, spokesman for the China National Intellectual Property Administration, told a news conference that greater legal efforts have been made to protect IP rights over the past few months, with stronger support for innovators.

He revealed that the average period of reviewing invention patents has also been reduced to 15.6 months as of October from 16 months in 2023, meaning that the efficiency of examining IP rights has been further increased.

In addition, as of June, the number of high-value invention patents per 10,000 people reached 12.9, "achieving the expected goal of the nation's 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-25) ahead of schedule," he added.

While witnessing rapid IP development, China has also continued its strong IP protection for foreign entities, with the endeavor to guide Chinese enterprises to handle IP-related disputes overseas, according to him.

For example, the country has set up 76 centers at the national level and four industrial sub-centers to face overseas IP cases, which have provided aid for 1,783 disputes for Chinese companies and helped recover economic losses of 25.8 billion yuan ($3.56 billion), he added.

"We've also focused more on building a sound business environment to serve high-level opening-up, responding IP-related concerns of each market entity such as foreign-funded enterprises in a timely manner and giving them equal protection," said Guo Wen, head of the administration's IP protection division.

She cited data which indicates that from January to October, 92,000 foreign invention patents were authorized in China, a rise of 5.3 percent year-on-year, and 121,000 trademarks were also registered, up 13.1 percent year-on-year.

"The figures have fully shown the satisfaction of foreign-funded companies with our country's IP protection," she said.

To better deal with IP-related problems from those foreign-found entities, "we've taken the initiative to align international economic and trade rules and established a regular contact system with them," she said.

"For instance, we held seminars in Beijing, Shanghai, as well as Jiangsu and Guangdong provinces with foreign-funded companies many times in order to learn about their difficulties in the IP field face to face, so that we can offer them more targeted services," she explained.

"Furthermore, we've intensified the fight against malicious trademark registration, and better tackled a number of IP cases involving enterprises from the United States, Germany, France, Italy, Thailand and Denmark after seeing the evidence in these disputes were sufficient enough," she added.

"All the moves will be continued," she said "We'll create a more fair, transparent and predictable business environment, and constantly inject confidence into the development of foreign companies in the Chinese market."