Foreign companies file record number of China patent applications
January 15, 2019 Category China News Round-up, Weekly
Foreign companies filed a record number of patents applications in China last year, which the government said reflected an improving business environment for overseas investment. A total of 148,000 patent applications were filed by foreign companies in 2018, according to figures from the National Intellectual Property Administration (NIPA), 9.1% higher than the previous year’s total. Foreign companies also lodged 244,000 trademark applications last year, about 16.5% more than the previous year’s. In addition, intellectual property royalties, the fee paid for using IP rights, reached USD35 billion.
“Usually the number of patent applications filed by foreigners is widely seen as an indicator or barometer of the business environment for foreign investment,” said Bi Nan, NIPA’s Director for Planning and Development. “The numbers mean that China’s business environment is improving,” Bi said, “and we are expecting growth to continue in the medium and long term.” Intellectual property protection, along with forced technology transfers, is one of the main “needed structural changes” that the U.S. has been pushing for in the trade talks with China. Beijing has repeatedly said that it had made great efforts on protecting intellectual property since it joined the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 2001.
Last month, Beijing announced that a draft of a revised intellectual property law, which includes stiffer punishments for infringements of IP, has passed its first review by the country’s legislature, the National People’s Congress (NPC), and is now soliciting public opinions before February 3. Poor protection of intellectual property rights has long been a major concern for foreign investors in China, and the Trump administration has accused China of infringing U.S. firms’ intellectual property rights through theft and forced technology transfers, an allegation the Chinese government has denied. China has spent billions of dollars over the past year in funding local companies to obtain intellectual property in China and overseas as part of a long-term effort to upgrade the country’s manufacturing capability with cutting-edge technology. Last year, Chinese inventors filed over 1.53 million applications and 432,000 patents have been granted, the Administration said.
Huawei Technologies, the world’s largest telecom equipment vendor, was granted more patents than any other Chinese company last year – about 3,369. Inventors working for Chinese companies were granted a record 12,589 U.S. patents in 2018, a 12% jump on the year, according to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, the South China Morning Post reports.
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