On April 28, 2021, CNIPA (China National Intellectual Property Administration) released "China Patent Survey Report 2020".

Since 2008, CNIPA has been releasing annual survey reports to track the development of China’s intellectual property market.

The national survey was conducted with the submission of 15,005 questionnaires about patent owners and 41,905 questionnaires about patents distributed in 24 provinces (regions and municipalities). The response rates have reached 80.1% and 82.2% respectively corresponding to 12,019 questionnaires and 34,361 questionnaires were properly answered and collected. Three types of surveyed patent owners are enterprises of varied scales, institutes of higher learning, and scientific research institutions, and three types of patents owned by them are invention patents, utility model patents, and design patents. The main conclusions drawn in the survey run as follows:

I.The commercialization rate of invention patents stabled at more than 30%

In 2020, the average commercialization rate of invention patents in China was 34.7%, with the rate of invention patents owned by enterprises reaching 44.9%, scientific research institutions 11.3%, and institute of higher learning 3.8%. Comparatively speaking, Chinese enterprises of varied scales were outperformers.

II.Patent infringement was in decline

In 2020, patent infringement occurred to 10.8% of patent owners, with a decrease rate of 3.7% over 2015 and a general downward trend reinforced.

III.Enterprises as patent owners had enhanced consciousness of protecting their patents with law

In 2020, 73.9% of enterprises as patent owners chose to take legal actions to protect their patents, with an increase rate of 12.1% over 2015 and a general upward trend reinforced.

IV.Compensations for patent infringement surged

In 2020, 7.3% of the compensations determined through court rulings, litigation mediation, and trial settlement surpassed 1 million yuan, with an increase rate of 4.4 % over 2015 and a general downward trend reinforced.

V.Nearly 80% of enterprise as patent owners have carried out cooperative innovation

78.3% of enterprise as patent owners achieved inventions through cooperation. From the perspective of the proportion of enterprise as patent owners who have carried out industry-university-research cooperation. The proportion of national high-tech enterprises is 40.5%, 1.9 times that of non-high-tech enterprises.

VI.Expect further growth of enterprises' earnings from intellectual property

38.2% of enterprises as patent owners expect their revenues from patent enforcement to increase in the coming year, and 35.1% expect their revenues to essentially unchanged. China's enterprises as patent owners are generally optimistic about the growth of patent revenue in the future.

VII. Difficulties in evidence collection are the main reason for the difficulty in safeguarding rights across regions

The patentee believes that the main reason for the difficulty in trans-regional protection of intellectual property rights is the difficulty in trans-regional evidence collection. The proportion of patent owners who choose this reason is 79.1%.

VIII.Improving the efficiency of litigation dispute resolution is the primary legal function of the patent invalidation system

63.1% patent owners agree that the patent invalidation declaration system "provides support for the determination of infringement and improves the efficiency of the settlement of litigation disputes", with the highest proportion of approval.

IX.China's patent transfer and transformation was continuously active in 2020

In 2020, the patent transfer and transformation index (PTI) was 54.7%, 3.6% higher than that of the previous year, and kept in a reasonable increase range, indicating that the active degree of effective patent transfer and transformation in China was continuously improving.

China Patent Survey Report 2020 in full is available here: https://www.cnipa.gov.cn/module/download/down.jsp?i_ID=158969&colID=88

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