CNIPA Released Data for the First Half of 2019 (2019-07)
On July 9, 2019, China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA) released statistics on patents, trademarks, geographical indications, and layout-designs of integrated circuits (layout designs) for the first half of 2019.
1. Patent
During the first half, 649,000 patent invention applications were filed in China, which represented a 9.4% decrease on a year-over-year basis. 238,000 patent inventions were granted, which constituted a 9.9% increase on a year-over-year basis. Among them, 192,000 domestic patent inventions were granted. Among the domestic invention patent authorizations, 183,000 or 95.2% were service inventions, and 9,000 or 4.8% were non-service were inventions. During the first half of 2019, the top 3 domestic enterprises (not including Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan) with the largest number of patents were Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. (2314), China Petroleum and Chemical Corporation (1595) and OPPO Guangdong Mobile Telecommunications Co., Ltd. (1312).
During the first half of 2019, a total of 24,000 PCT international patent applications were processed, growing by 4.9% on a year-over-year basis. Among them, 22,000 were domestic applications, which constituted a 2.8% increase on a year-over-year basis.
2. Trademark
During the first half of 2019, 3.438 million trademark applications were filed in China, which represented a 4.1% decrease on a year-over-year basis. 3.515 million trademarks were registered, constituting a 67.8% increase on a year-over-year basis. As of the end of June, valid trademark registrations had amounted to 22.743 million in Chin, increasing by 35.3% on a year-over-year basis. On average, every 5.2 market entities had one valid trademark.
During the first half of 2019, 198,000 applications for various types of trademark review and adjudications were received, and 159,000 cases were closed. 2,849 Madrid international trademarks registrations were applied by Chinese applicants. As of the end of June 2019, the number of valid Madrid international registration of trademarks applied by Chinese applicants was 35,000.
3. Geographical indications
During the first half of 2019, 229 geographical indication trademarks were registered, and 116 enterprises were approved to use special signs for geographical indication products. As of the end of June 2019, a total of 5,090 geographical indication trademarks had been registered, 2,380 geographical indication products had been approved (including 61 foreign geographical indications), 8,295 enterprises had been approved to use special signs, and 24 national geographical indication product protection demonstration zones had been established.
4. Layout designs
During the first half of 2019, a total of 2,904 layout design applications were received, which represented a 45.7% increase on a year-over-year basis. 2,487 applications were issued, increasing by 52.0% compared to the previous year.
5. Intellectual Property Protection and Application
During the first half of 2019, the nationwide patent and trademark administrative law has achieved comprehensive enforcement. A total of 6,529 patent infringement and counterfeiting cases were investigated and handled, as did 11,500 cases of trademark violations.
As shown, during the first half of the year, foreign patent invention applications submitted in China reached 78,000, which represented an 8.6% increase on a year-over-year basis. Foreign trademark applications filed in China numbered 127,000, increasing by15.4% on a year-over-year basis. The steady growth of foreign patents and trademark applications in China speaks to foreign enterprises' confidence in China’s intellectual property protection. In addition, during the first half of the year, service inventions accounted for 91.2% of domestic patent invention applications, with a 5.7% increase over the same period in 2018 while the number of individual patent applications declined by 46.0%. Its constantly diminishing share in China’s domestic patent applications demonstrates that the structure of domestic patent application in China is in the process of continuous optimization.
(Adapted from CNIPA’s website)