Huawei ranked first in the world in terms of PCT applications numbers in 2008. |
Topping the World
Over the last decade, companies have become China's main force in invention patents.
Invention patents granted to companies in the country increased nearly 58 times from over 1,000 in 2001 to more than 58,000 in 2011.
Of all patents for on-duty inventions granted in China, the percentage of invention patents granted to companies rose from over 33 percent to over 61 percent in the past 10 years.
International patent applications filed by Chinese companies have increased markedly as they speed up overseas expansion.
Published Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) applications from China increased nearly 10-fold from 1,731 in 2001 to 16,402 in 2011, and their percentage of the world's total rose from nearly 2 percent to 9 percent during the period, pushing China from 10th place to fourth in patent filings.
The number of China's PCT applications, which has been growing faster than any other country in the world since 2009, grew over 33 percent in 2011 from the previous year, 12 percentage points faster than the growth rate of Japan, the second fastest growing patent filer in 2011.
China's Huawei Technologies, with 1,737 published PCP applications, ranked the first in the world in terms of PCT applications numbers in 2008.
In 2011, ZTE Corporation, another Chinese telecom equipment maker, with 2,826 published applications, became the world's top PCT applicant in 2011, once again showing Chinese companies' innovative capabilities.
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