Report: IP Activities in China 2018

July 16th, 2019 ‧ 2 min read

IP activities in China have been increasing for several years now (here is an article on the topic by IPWatchdog).

In an attempt to shed some light on to the matter — and possibly derive valuable insights — we have collected and analyzed data from various sources (Patentcloud — our cloud-based IP intelligence platform — CNIPA, NCAC, and NIPSO) to offer a snapshot of the current situation.

The result is a series of infographics that cover the three main areas of IP protection:

  • Application trends
  • Litigation cases
  • Patent transactions

Download the full report to access the complete set of infographics by filling in the form here.

Key Takeaways

Application Trends

  • Most resident applications were filed for utility models.
  • Most non-resident applications were filed for utility patents.
  • Copyright registrations for computer software increased substantially (+48%), in particular in the AI (+104%), apps (+76%), and big data (+64%) sectors.
  • Trademark registrations boomed over the last few years; the recent amendments to Trademark Laws, however, might have had an impact on the trend.

Utility models are a form of IP protection, they’re similar to patents but generally less expensive to obtain and maintain, with shorter terms and grant lags, and less stringent patentability requirements.

Litigation Cases

  • The majority of litigation cases (69%) involved copyright protection.
  • Only a relatively small percentage (5%) of cases were still underway at the end of the year.
  • Most of the instituted cases (85%) were civil cases.

Patent Transactions

  • Patent transfers amounted to 85% of all transaction activities, while pledges amounted to around 12%.
  • Inventions consistently amounted to around 60% of all transfer activities, while utility models amounted to around 30% between 2010 and 2018.
  • Utility models consistently amounted to around 60% of all pledging activities, while inventions amounted to around 30% between 2010 and 2018.

REMARKS: 1) Patent transfers include internal transfers between affiliates; 2) If a patent has multiple records (e.g. multiple transfers) within the same year, it will only be counted once in the statistics; 3) The registration of licensing contracts is not mandatory under Chinese law. Therefore, the CNIPA’s licensing database is only likely to reflect a subset of the licenses. As a result, only the records that have been registered at the CNIPA have been included in the statistics.

Read our latest blog article here.

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