China leads global patent race but needs ‘breakthrough’ to close gap with West in AI, chips
- In 2021, China filed 1.59 million patent applications, more than double the number of the United States, the World Intellectual Property Organization says
- But according to experts the country has produced ‘few original innovations’ in areas like artificial intelligence and semiconductors compared to the US and Europe
China’s patent-intensive industry, a key engine of economic growth and technological advancement, produces more intellectual property than any country in the world, but its contribution to the economy still lags behind the US and Europe, according to official figures and analysts.
Patent-intensive industries have above average density and scale of patents, which are used to establish ownership of inventions and ideas.
The added value of China’s patent-intensive industry was 14.3 trillion yuan (US$2.1 trillion) in 2021, up 17.9 per cent from the previous year.
The industry accounts for 12.4 per cent of China’s gross domestic product (GDP) and employs 6.5 per cent of the workforce, making it an important sector for “stable growth and employment”, Ge Shu, a senior official at the China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA), said last week.
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However, compared with the United States and European Union (EU), the “development potential of patent-intensive industry in China is still very large”, Ge said.