China’s Patent Grants Accelerate By Over 50% in First Half of 2021

In recently released data for the first half of 2021, the China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA) granted 55.9% more invention patents than in the first half of 2020.  Utility model patents were up less at 30.3% versus the first half of 2020. The percentage of patents granted to foreign patentees dropped from  19.0% to 15.8% although the absolute number of patents to foreign patentees increased from 41,157 to 53,512.  However, this may overstate the total number of patents granted to true foreigners as some Chinese entities file in the name of a foreign holding company – for example, the top foreign patentee in 2020 was Alibaba Group of Hangzhou, China according to CNIPA’s annual report for 2020.

Invention patent grants totaled 338,563 in 2021 H1 versus 217,171 versus 2020 H1. Utility model patent grants totaled 1,327,128 versus 1,017,738.  Design patent grants totaled 393,100 versus 364,278, a smaller 7.9% increase. Foreigners were granted just 0.3% of utility models and just 2.1% of design patents.

The full data (Chinese only) is available here and provides additional information including trademark, geographical indications, and integrated circuit layout design data.

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