China’s intellectual property agency reports fall in patent applications after quality drive

Name: Facebook, Amazon, Google and Apple respond to Congress about whether China steals US technology
Uploaded: 2020-12-17T04:00:07.000Z
Duration: 2 min 6 s
Description: Facebook, Amazon, Google and Apple respond to Congress about whether China steals US technology

Applications in 2019 were down a tenth from the previous year, China’s first decrease in 24 years

The Chinese authorities have taken measures to improve applications and reduce unqualified filings

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China has led the global totals of patent applications since 2011. Photo: Xinhua

Rachel Zhang

Published: 12:00pm, 17 Dec 2020Updated: 12:00pm, 17 Dec 2020

The number of patent applications made by China last year fell for the first time in more than two decades, according to a United Nations agency, following the country’s moves to tighten up the application procedure to raise the quality of its patents.

China’s intellectual property (IP) administration received 1.4 million patent applications in 2019, down 11 per cent from the previous year and the first drop in 24 years, the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) said in its World Intellectual Property Indicators report, which covers more than 150 countries.

The decrease dragged down the global total, which fell by 3 per cent last year despite rising by a little over 2 per cent excluding China, according to the report, which was released last week.

The lower number of patent applications may indicate the success of China’s efforts to transform its application structure, an IP expert told Science and Technology Daily, affiliated with the Ministry of Science and Technology. The Chinese government aims for the country to become a technology powerhouse by 2035, partly by bolstering home-grown hi-tech to reduce reliance on other nations.

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Facebook, Amazon, Google and Apple respond to Congress about whether China steals US technology

“It is actually a positive sign,” Sun Guorui, head of Beijing Intellectual Property Law Society and a law professor at Beihang University, was quoted as saying.

Sun said that the constant rise in IP applications in recent years had created a hefty workload for approval agencies and “a great number of those filings were unqualified”.

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