Development of Patent Agency Industry (2020) (August 2021)

By the end of 2020, the number of people who had obtained the qualification certificate of patent agents has reached 53,090, with 23,193 licensed patent agents and 3,253 patent agencies (excluding Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan).

I.  About Patent Agencies

Patent agencies are mainly distributed in Beijing (734), Guangdong (538), Jiangsu (325), Zhejiang (228) and Shanghai (214). There are many patent agencies in the East and coastal, economically developed areas, with regional distribution basically consistent with the number of patent applications in various provinces and cities.

Among the 3,253 patent agencies, according to the establishment time of patent agencies, 220 patent agencies have been established for more than 20 years, accounting for 6.8% of the total number of patent agencies in China; 755 patent agencies have been established for more than 10 years, accounting for 23.3%; 1207 patent agencies have been established for more than 5 years, accounting for 37.1%; 2046 patent agencies were established within 5 years, accounting for 62.9%.

In addition, among the 3253 agencies, 2731 agencies with less than 10 licensed patent agents, accounted for about 84%; 353 patent agencies with 11~20 licensed patent agents, accounted for 10.8%; 131 licensed patent agents with 21~50 people, accounted for 4.0%; the number of patent agencies with 51~100 licensed patent agents and more than 100 licensed patent agents are 27 and 11, respectively.  These agencies are mainly distributed in Beijing, Guangdong, Jiangsu and Shanghai.

II. About Patent Agents

Patent agents were mainly distributed in Beijing, Guangdong, Jiangsu and Shanghai.  In the ranking of licensed patent agents and the number of qualified patent agents, Beijing ranked first both with 8744 licensed patent agents (accounting for 37.7% of the total number of licensed patent agents in China) and 14230 qualified patent agents, and Guangdong and Jiangsu ranked second and third with 3160 and 6901 licensed patent agents, 1666 and 5339 qualified patent agents, respectively.

By the end of 2020, the list of ad litem agents published by the All China Association of Patent Agents had recommended 3220 ad litem agents.  Beijing has the largest number, reaching 1623, accounting for 50.40% of the total; the number in Guangdong, Shanghai, Zhejiang, Jiangsu and Shandong all exceeded 100.

Adapted from the CNIPA