Source:China IP News
By June 2024, China's inventory of valid invention patents had soared to 4.425 million, with corporate ownership accounting for 72.8%, reflecting an upsurge in business innovation. The number of foreign-owned valid invention patents and registered trademarks in China had reached 919,000 and 2.135 million respectively, showing a consistent upward trend. In the first half of 2024, patent transfers and licensing transactions by Chinese universities and research institutions increased by 22.2% year on year. Recently, the State Council Information Office of China held a series of press conferences themed "Promoting High-Quality Development", highlighting the remarkable progress in the intellectual property (IP) sector.
Shen Changyu, Commissioner of the China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA), outlined the administration's strategic focus on three key areas to deepen IP reform and create an efficient integrated IP management system at the press conference. The first priority is to enhance the integrated management reform to spur innovation more effectively. The second is to refine the reform to better encourage high-level opening-up. The third is to advance the reform to support the development of a high-standard market system.
Fostering new quality productive forces is essential for promoting high-quality development. IP serves as a fundamental guarantee for innovation, providing important institutional and technological support for the development of new quality productive forces, as underscored at the press conference.
"We treat the IP of domestic and foreign-funded companies equally," said CNIPA Deputy Commissioner Hu Wenhui. The CNIPA has established 115 national IP protection centers and first-aid centers, with more than 5,000 foreign-funded companies and joint ventures on file, providing the same rapid and coordinated protection services as domestic companies have.
Since last year, the CNIPA has properly resolved a number of IP disputes involving companies from the U.S., Germany, France, Italy, Thailand, Denmark, and other countries, earning high praise from foreign-funded companies. By June 2024, the number of foreign-owned valid invention patents and registered trademarks in China had risen by 3.9% and 3.8% year on year, respectively, showing foreign companies' high regard for the Chinese market and their strong confidence in China's IP protection.
Data has transcended the traditional forms of production factors to emerge as a premium element in the creation of new quality productive forces. Invention patent licensing transactions in the core industries of China's digital economy reached 406,000, representing 45% of the total, with an average annual growth rate of 21.0% over the past five years. In recent years, according to Ge Shu, Deputy Commissioner of the Patent Office and Director General of the Strategic Planning Department at the CNIPA, the CNIPA has formulated regulations for the management of data IP registration, created a unified national data IP registration certificate, and accelerated the establishment of a national data IP registration platform, making necessary preparations for data IP registration at the national level.
The industry is the carrier of new quality productive forces, and the transformation of technological achievements into tangible productive forces is contingent upon their industrial application. In the first half of 2024, Chinese universities and research institutions executed 23,000 patent transfers and licensing transactions, up 22.2% year on year.
With a focus on enhancing the efficiency of the IP chain in key industries, the CNIPA has earnestly implemented the requirements of the Special Action Plan for Patent Commercialization and Utilization (2023-2025), and has recently collaborated with relevant departments to release the Measures for Enhancing the Efficiency of the Intellectual Property Chain in Key Industries. According to Wang Peizhang, Director General of the CNIPA IP Utilization Promotion Department, various departments will actively establish a collaborative mechanism for industrial development, encourage leading companies and key industrial parks to build industrial IP operation centers, offer guidance on the establishment of industrial IP innovation alliances, and facilitate the joint creation, coordinated use, common protection and integrated management of IP. The construction of patent pools in key industries will be encouraged, with the development and release of work guidelines to enhance the overall layout of patent pools, thereby promoting collaborative industrial development.
"We will earnestly implement these measures and continuously enhance our IP governance capabilities and standards. We aim to better leverage the positive role of IP in spurring comprehensive innovation, promoting industrial transformation, improving the business environment, and ensuring the seamless operation of both domestic and international economic cycles. By doing so, we will make an even greater contribution of IP to the acceleration of Chinese modernization," said Shen.
