China’s patent filings back on track amid Covid-19 disruptions
- More than 683,000 patent applications were filed in China the past six months, despite a drastic slowdown in February at the height of the coronavirus outbreak
- Telecommunications giant Huawei was awarded the most number of patents in the first half of this year, followed by smartphone rival Oppo and display maker BOE
Patent filings in China rose slightly in the first half of this year even as the number of licences granted declined, according to the latest government data, reflecting the country’s efforts to recover from the disruptions caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.
More than 683,000 patent applications were filed in the past six months, according to data released by the China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA). This was calculated as a 5 per cent increase from 649,000 applications in the same period last year.
“Currently, the monthly growth [in applications] has exceeded the pre-pandemic level,” CNIPA official Ge Shu said in a live-streamed press conference on Thursday.
There were 217,000 patents granted by CNIPA in the first half of this year, which was down almost 9 per cent from 238,000 a year earlier.
The modest recovery in domestic patent applications comes after China saw a drastic slowdown in filings in February, during the height of the coronavirus outbreak in the world’s second largest economy.
That turned out to be a brief setback, as China’s policy support on achieving greater self-sufficiency in strategic areas of technology – driven by a complex tech and trade war with the US – helped usher in more intellectual property applications for semiconductor design in the first half of this year.