Update: China Vigorously Pursues Transformation, Industrialization of Patents

Source:Xinhua

China has effectively promoted the transformation and industrialization of a large number of patents, with the industrialization rate of enterprise invention patents up from 44.9 percent in 2020 to 53.3 percent in 2024, the country's top IP official said on Thursday.

Shen Changyu, head of the China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA), unveiled the data at a press conference, where he presented achievements in intellectual property (IP) during the 14th Five-Year Plan period (2021-2025) and responded to questions from the media.

As of June this year, the number of valid domestic invention patents had reached 5.01 million, an increase of 13.2 percent year on year, according to Shen, while ownership of high-value invention patents per 10,000 people had reached 15.3.

The country had collected about 48.96 million valid registered trademarks by June 2025, a year-on-year increase of 6.6 percent.

ENTERPRISES FUEL INNOVATION

In addition, the dominant position of enterprises in technological innovation continues to be enhanced in China, said Shen. There were 524,000 domestic enterprises that held valid invention patents in June 2025.

The total number of valid invention patents held by these enterprises had reached 3.7 million -- accounting for 74.4 percent of the total number in China, an increase of 6.1 percentage points compared to the end of the 13th Five-Year Plan period (2016-2020).

Such progress was highly consistent with the fact that research and development (R&D) investment by enterprises accounts for three-quarters of total social R&D investment in China, said Shen. This indicates that the innovation capability of enterprises is continuously improving, and that they have become the main source of new technology generation, Shen added.

The three fields with the highest growth rates of valid domestic invention patents in China by June 2025 were information technology management methods, computer technology and medical technology, featuring year-on-year rises of 34.1 percent, 22.7 percent and 19.8 percent, respectively. These figures were significantly higher than the average growth rate of valid domestic invention patents, Shen revealed.

HIGH-VALUE INVENTION PATENTS

China has promoted the implementation of a pre-patent application evaluation system centered on the assessment of industrialization prospects, in order to generate more high-value patents that meet the needs of industrial development, Shen said.

The growing pool of high-value invention patents is not only a direct reflection of the continuous enhancement of China's innovation capabilities, but also a strong source of support for promoting the high-quality economic and social development of the country, said Liang Xinxin, a senior CNIPA official, at the press conference.

As of last month, China had collected over 1.47 million valid invention patents in strategic emerging industries -- accounting for roughly 70 percent of the total high-value invention patents, Liang explained.

A number of high-value core patents cover key areas such as artificial intelligence, new energy, green environmental protection, and life and health.

Liang said that around 793,000 high-value invention patents, almost 40 percent of the total, had a duration of over 10 years, which could help the innovators retain a technological edge and generate continuous economic and social benefits.

The majority of creators and users of high-value invention patents are enterprises, said Liang. At present, 265,000 enterprises in China hold over 1.65 million high-value invention patents, or 76.6 percent of the total.

High-value invention patents enable enterprises to maintain a technological lead over market competition and effectively enhance their core competitiveness, said Liang.

He highlighted that high-value invention patents have strongly supported regional innovation and development. Among the world's top ten science and technology clusters, four are in China, namely the Shenzhen-Hong Kong-Guangzhou cluster, the Beijing cluster, the Shanghai-Suzhou cluster and the Nanjing cluster, Liang noted.

Latest data shows that the added value of China's patent-intensive industries had reached 16.87 trillion yuan in 2023, accounting for 13.04 percent of GDP, said Wang Peizhang, a senior official at the CNIPA. These industries have made outstanding contributions to promoting innovation, improving efficiency and stabilizing employment, Wang added.

In 2023, employment numbers in China's patent-intensive industries exceeded 50.81 million people, an increase of 4.05 million compared to 2020, said Wang.

He pointed out that patent-intensive industries are becoming a "new driving force" for China's economic development.