China National Intellectual Property Administration graphic live broadcast： press conference on the main work statistics and related information of China National Intellectual Property Administration

[Moderator Hu Wenhui, director of China National Intellectual Property Administration’s office] Good morning, friends from the press! Welcome to China National Intellectual Property Administration’s press conference. This press conference is the first regular press conference in China National Intellectual Property Administration in 2017. Thank you for your concern and support for China’s intellectual property cause in 2016. Next, I would like to introduce the leaders who attended today’s conference: Gong Yalin, Director of Planning and Development Department; Zheng Huifen, Director of Examination Management Department of Patent Office; Ge Shu, Deputy Director of Patent Reexamination Board; and Zhao Meisheng, Deputy Director of Patent Management Department. I’m Hu Wenhui, spokesperson and director of the office. Next, I will release the main work statistics and relevant information of China National Intellectual Property Administration in 2016.

[2017-01-19 10:01]

[Hu Wenhui] I. Main work statistics and other relevant information
　　In 2016, our bureau accepted 1.339 million invention patent applications, with a year-on-year increase of 21.5%, ranking first in the world for six consecutive years. A total of 404,000 invention patents were authorized, including 302,000 domestic invention patents, an increase of 39,000 compared with 2015 and a year-on-year increase of 14.5%. In the domestic invention patent authorization, there are 276,000 service inventions, accounting for 91.4%; The number of non-service inventions was 26,000, accounting for 8.6%.

[2017-01-19 10:02]

[Hu Wenhui] In 2016, the top ten domestic (excluding Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan) enterprises in China were: Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. (4,906), China Petrochemical Co., Ltd. (4,405), LeTV Holdings (Beijing) Co., Ltd. (4,197) and ZTE Corporation (3,947). 778 pieces), BOE Technology Group Co., Ltd. (3,569 pieces), Zhuhai Gree Electric Co., Ltd. (3,299 pieces), Beijing Xiaomi Mobile Software Co., Ltd. (3,280 pieces), Nubian Technology Co., Ltd. (2,912 pieces) and State Grid Corporation (2,784 pieces).

[2017-01-19 10:03]

[Hu Wenhui] In 2016, the top ten domestic (excluding Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan) enterprises in China were: State Grid Corporation (4,146), Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. (2,690), China Petrochemical Co., Ltd. (2,555), ZTE Corporation (1,587) and BOE Technology. 228 pieces), Tencent Technology (Shenzhen) Co., Ltd. (1,027 pieces), Zhuhai Gree Electric Co., Ltd. (871 pieces), China Oil and Gas Co., Ltd. (867 pieces), Lenovo (Beijing) Co., Ltd. (763 pieces) and Shanghai Hua Hong Hongli Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., Ltd. (721 pieces).

[2017-01-19 10:04]

[Hu Wenhui] By the end of 2016, the number of invention patents in China (excluding Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan) totaled 1.103 million, and the number of invention patents per 10,000 population reached 8.0. The top ten provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities) with invention patents per 10,000 population in China are: Beijing (76.8), Shanghai (35.2), Jiangsu (18.4), Zhejiang (16.5), Guangdong (15.5), Tianjin (14.7), Shaanxi (7.3).

[2017-01-19 10:05]

[Hu Wenhui] In 2016, our bureau accepted 45,000 PCT patent applications, a year-on-year increase of 47.3%. Among them, 42,200 pieces came from China, up 48.5% year-on-year; 2800 pieces came from abroad, up 31.2% year-on-year. In 2016, there were 19 provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities) with more than 100 PCT patent applications, an increase of 3 compared with 2015. Among them, there are 23,600 in Guangdong, ranking first, and more than 1,000 in Beijing, Jiangsu, Shanghai, Shandong and Zhejiang. The number of PCT patent applications in the above six provinces and cities accounts for nearly 90% of the national total.

[2017-01-19 10:06]

[Hu Wenhui] In 2016, there were 4,834 patent applications published in countries along the Belt and Road (excluding China), up 47.1% year-on-year, and the number of destination countries for patent applications was 18, up 3 from 2015. Among them, 3,017 patents were applied in India, up 131.5% year-on-year. In 2016, countries along the Belt and Road applied for 3,697 patents in China, an increase of 18.2% over 2015.

[2017-01-19 10:07]

[Hu Wenhui] In 2016, the total number of patent administrative law enforcement cases nationwide was 48,916, a year-on-year increase of 36.5%. Among them, 20,859 cases of patent disputes were handled (including 20,351 cases of patent infringement disputes), a year-on-year increase of 42.8%; 28,057 counterfeit patent cases were investigated, up 32.1% year-on-year.

[2017-01-19 10:07]

[Hu Wenhui] In 2016, the Patent Reexamination Board accepted 13,107 reexamination requests, closed 17,623 reexamination requests, accepted 3,969 invalidation requests and closed 4,100 invalidation requests.

[2017-01-19 10:08]

[Hu Wenhui] In 2016, the Bureau further intensified the reform of the patent agency "streamline administration, delegate power, strengthen regulation and improve services" and abolished the provision of "preliminary examination and approval of the establishment of patent agencies" under the responsibility of provincial intellectual property offices. Issued the "Pilot Work Plan for the Reform of Patent Agency Industry" to relax the conditions for shareholders or partners of patent agencies. In 2001, 269 patent agencies were approved, of which 65 enjoyed the pilot reform policy. The national patent agent qualification examination process was further optimized, with more than 30,000 applicants and a total of 4,954 people passing the examination, all reaching record highs. Up to now, the number of patent agencies in China has exceeded 1,500, with more than 14,000 licensed patent agents.

[2017-01-19 10:08]

[Hu Wenhui] First, China’s domestic invention patents have exceeded 1 million. By the end of 2016, the number of domestic invention patents in China reached 1.103 million, surpassing 1 million for the first time. China is the third country in the world with more than one million domestic invention patents after the United States and Japan. The number of invention patents per 10,000 population in China (excluding Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan) reached 8.0, 1.7 more than that at the end of the 12th Five-Year Plan, which laid a good foundation for completing the target of 12 invention patents per 10,000 population in the Outline of the 13th Five-Year Plan.

[2017-01-19 10:09]

[Hu Wenhui] Second, the main features

[2017-01-19 10:09]

[Hu Wenhui] Second, China’s invention patent creation has achieved a rise in quantity and quality. 2016 is the first year of the "Thirteenth Five-Year Plan". The number of domestic invention patent applications accepted and authorized continues to grow steadily, and the structure is further optimized. The proportion of invention patent applications in all patent applications remains around 40%, and enterprises account for more than 60% of domestic invention patent applications and authorizations. The ability of patent creation and application of innovation subjects, mainly enterprises, has been continuously improved. At the same time, the improvement of patent acceptance and approval ability in China has also provided a solid guarantee for the protection of innovation achievements.

[2017-01-19 10:09]

[Hu Wenhui] Third, there is still a gap between the patent layout in some fields and foreign countries. Among the 35 technical fields classified by the World Intellectual Property Organization, in 2016, the number of domestic invention patents was higher than that of foreign invention patents in China, an increase of one over that in 2015. However, there are still gaps between China and foreign countries in six fields, such as optics, engines, transportation, semiconductors, audio-visual technology and medical technology. For example, in the fields of optics and engines, the number of invention patents owned by foreign countries is 1.4 times and 1.2 times that of China respectively. Judging from the effective invention patents that have been maintained for more than 10 years, the number of foreign patents in China is 1.9 times that in China, and the transportation field has reached 5.7 times. Therefore, China still needs to strengthen the patent layout in some technical fields.

[2017-01-19 10:10]

[Hu Wenhui] Fourth, the growth of foreign patent applications by Chinese applicants is strong. In the process of implementing the "going out" strategy in China, a number of innovative enterprises have emerged that pay attention to and rely on intellectual property rights to participate in international competition, which has driven the number of PCT patent applications in China to a record high. In 2016, 42,000 PCT patent applications were submitted by Chinese applicants through China National Intellectual Property Administration, with a year-on-year growth rate of 48.5%. However, compared with developed countries, there is still a big gap in China’s overseas patent layout ability. According to the data of the World Intellectual Property Organization, in 2015, the number of foreign invention patent applications in China only ranked sixth in the world, about 1/6 of that in the United States, 1/5 of that in Japan and less than half of that in Germany. Therefore, China urgently needs to strengthen the ability of overseas patent layout.

[2017-01-19 10:11]

[Hu Wenhui] The above is the main work statistics and relevant information of our bureau in 2016. Next, please ask reporters to ask questions on related issues, and please inform your media when you ask questions.

[2017-01-19 10:12]

[CCTV reporter] You mentioned in the release that in 2016, China’s domestic invention patents exceeded 1 million, making it the third country in the world to have more than 1 million domestic invention patents, and it has reached a large scale in terms of quantity. What safeguards are there to improve the quality of patents?

[2017-01-19 10:12]

[Gong Yalin, Director of Planning and Development Department of China National Intellectual Property Administration] The number of domestic invention patents refers to the number of invention patents authorized by China National Intellectual Property Administration and within the validity period owned by Chinese residents.
　　Internationally, the number of domestic invention patents is usually regarded as an important index to measure and evaluate the innovation level of a country. At present, China’s invention patent application and authorization both rank first in the world, which shows that under the background of implementing innovation-driven development strategy and intellectual property strategy, the creative enthusiasm and ability of innovation subjects in China are rising. On the other hand, it also benefits from the remarkable improvement of China’s patent acceptance and approval ability, and the approval efficiency is constantly improving. China is the third country with more than 1 million invention patents after the United States and Japan, which is the result of strengthening the protection and application of intellectual property rights in China, and shows the basic guarantee function of patent system for stimulating innovation.

[2017-01-19 10:13]

[Gong Yalin] In the first 25 years since the implementation of the patent system in China, the number of foreign invention patents in China has been higher than that in China. In 2011, the number of domestic invention patents in China surpassed that of foreign countries for the first time; After another five years, the number of effective invention patents in China has exceeded one million, which is conducive to China’s innovative subjects occupying a favorable position in market competition and reflects the effectiveness of China’s innovation and development. Nevertheless, we should see that the number of patents still needs to be solved. In China, there are not many effective invention patents that have been maintained for more than 10 years, and the number in some key fields is not dominant, which needs to be strengthened. Therefore, in the just-released "Thirteenth Five-Year Plan" for the protection and application of intellectual property rights, key arrangements have been made to further improve the quality and efficiency of intellectual property rights. In the next step, we will comprehensively promote the quality improvement of all links in the whole chain of patent creation, application, agency, examination, protection and application in accordance with the working concept of "quality wins, quantity distribution".

[2017-01-19 10:14]

[China Daily reporter] Please tell us about the invalid patent examination and patent reexamination cycle in China in 2016. What measures does China National Intellectual Property Administration take to manage the examination cycle when the number of patent applications has increased substantially?

[2017-01-19 10:15]

[Zheng Huifen, Director of Review Business Management Department] In 2016, China’s patent review cycle remained basically stable as a whole. Among them, the invention review cycle was stable at 22 months, and the new and appearance closing cycle was stable at 3 months.
　　In recent years, the number of patent applications in China has increased continuously and rapidly, which has actually brought great pressure to the management of patent examination cycle. China National Intellectual Property Administration has always adhered to the mode of whole-process and segmented target management, scientifically deployed examination human resources, made great efforts to clean up cases with extremely long cycles, and adopted various examination methods such as priority examination and pilot centralized examination, which basically maintained the stability of the examination cycle. Under the background of rapid growth of patent applications in China, the stability of the cycle was hard to come by.

[2017-01-19 10:16]

[Ge Shu, Deputy Director of the Patent Reexamination Board] In 2016, the average closing period of reexamination reached 11.9 months, and the average closing period of invalid cases reached 5.1 months, down 1.8 months and 0.7 months respectively. By constantly strengthening internal management, the Reexamination Committee, on the one hand, optimizes internal processes and management modes, and carries out short-cycle case management pilots to shorten the case review cycle, on the other hand, it reduces the number of long-cycle cases by strengthening the management and control of long-cycle cases. It has achieved a double decline in the period of retrial and invalid closing.

[2017-01-19 10:17]

[Reporter of China Intellectual Property News] Please tell us about the law enforcement cases against patent infringement and counterfeiting in 2016, especially in the fields of e-commerce?

[2017-01-19 10:18]

[Zhao Meisheng, Deputy Director of the Patent Management Department] In 2016, the efforts to crack down on patent infringement and counterfeiting were further strengthened, the efficiency of handling cases was further improved, the structure was further optimized, and the law enforcement work in key areas was significantly strengthened, which enhanced the confidence of the majority of innovation subjects and market subjects in patent protection and played an important role in creating a good environment for innovation and development. Specifically:
　　In terms of handling efficiency, the settlement rate of various patent cases in 2016 was 97.5%, up 4.3 percentage points year-on-year; Among them, the settlement rate of patent infringement disputes was 94.4%, up 0.8 percentage points year-on-year, and the efficiency of law enforcement was further improved.

[2017-01-19 10:19]

[Zhao Meisheng] In terms of case handling structure, the ratio of patent disputes to counterfeit patents in 2016 was about 1: 1.35, which was more optimized than the 1: 1.45 structure in 2015. The proportion of difficult patent disputes in the total cases increased year by year, and the handling capacity of the whole system was further improved.
　　Law enforcement efforts in key areas such as e-commerce have continued to increase. In 2016, the number of patent law enforcement cases in the field of e-commerce was 13,123, a year-on-year increase of 71.4%; Cross-regional law enforcement cooperation has been further strengthened by establishing a patent law enforcement cooperation and scheduling mechanism in the field of e-commerce.

[2017-01-19 10:20]

[Hu Wenhui] Thank you for attending today’s press conference. In another week, the Spring Festival will be held. Here, I wish you good health, smooth work and a happy family. This is the end of the press conference, thank you!

[2017-01-19 10:21]