Annual number of Chinese patent apps to surpass Japan, US

China will take first place in patent applications worldwide in 2011, and its annual total number of patent applications will surpass that of Japan and the United States, according to an intellectual property analysis report released by Thomson Reuters, a global professional information services provider, on Oct. 11.

The research report titled "Patents in China II: Present and Future of China's Innovation Activities" pointed out that from 2003 to 2009, the growth rate of China's patents stood at more than 26 percent, while the growth rate of the United States, China's closest competitor, only stood at around 6 percent.

As China has witnessed changes in the pattern of its economy, the growth rate of patent applications in China's high-tech sector is much higher than that in the agriculture sector. In addition, China's patent quality is also showing an improving trend in accordance with the proportion of patent applications to granted patents for all invention patents in China.

By People's Daily Online