CNIPA Releases 2020 Data (January 2021)

On January 22, the CNIPA released the 2020 statistics of China's patents, trademarks, geographical indications and integrated circuit layout designs in a press conference.

I. Patents

In 2020, 530,000 invention patents were granted in China. By the end of 2020, China’ had recorded 2.123 million pieces of valid domestic (excluding Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan) invention patents.

In 2020, 72,000 PCT international patent applications were accepted, of which 67,000 were submitted by domestic applicants. China authorized 2.377 million utility model patents and 0.732 million design patents. There were 48,000 cases of patent reexaminations, with a year-over-year increase of 28.9%, and 0.7 million cases of invalidation, year-over-year increase of 34.1%.

II. Trademarks

In 2020, 5.761 million trademarks were registered in China. The CNIPA received 7,553 applications for international registration of Madrid trademarks from domestic applicants.  It examined 149,000 trademark opposition cases, with a year-over-year increase of 64.7%; the CNIPA also completed the trial of 358,000 cases of various trademark evaluation cases, with year-over-year increase of 7.8%.

III. Geographical Indication

In 2020, the CNIPA accepted 10 applications for the protection of geographical indication product, approved 6 geographical indication products for protection. It also sanctioned 1,052 enterprises that use special geographical indication marks and 765 geographical indication trademarks for registration. By the end of 2020, a total of 2,391 geographical indication products and 9,479 enterprises that use special signs would have been approved, while a total of 6,085 geographical indication trademarks would have been registered.

IV. Integrated circuit layout design

In 2020, China's integrated circuit layout design registration applications numbered 14,375, growing by 72.8% over the previous year. China issued 11,727 pieces of certificates, with a year-over-year increase of 77.3%.

V. Protection and application of intellectual property rights

In 2020, the national intellectual property system handled more than 42,000 cases of administrative rulings on patent infringement disputes. The social satisfaction score of intellectual property protection exceeded 80 points for the first time, reaching 80.05 points.  China's patent and trademark pledge financing projects reached 12,039, with a year-over-year increase of 43.8%; the total amount of pledge financing reached 218 billion yuan, growing by 43.9% compared to the previous year.

Adapted from the website of the CNIPA