In 2020, China granted 530,000 invention patents and registered 5.761 million trademarks

China's major intellectual property indicators for 2020 have met expectations and reached a new level of development, according to key data released by the State Intellectual Property Office (SIPO). China granted 530,000 invention patents. By the end of 2020, the number of effective domestic invention patents had reached 2.13 million.

In 2020, China registered 5.761 million trademarks; 1,052 enterprises were approved to use special geographical indication marks, and 765 geographical indication trademarks were approved to register. There were 14,375 applications for registration of integrated circuit layout-design, up 72.8% year on year.

In 2020, the national IPR system handled more than 42,000 cases of administrative adjudication on patent infringement disputes, scoring 80.05 points for social satisfaction with IPR protection. The number of patent and trademark pledge financing projects reached 12,039, an increase of 43.8% year-on-year, and the total amount of pledge financing reached 218 billion yuan, an increase of 43.9% year-on-year.

According to the report, the quality and efficiency of China's intellectual property review will be further improved in 2020. The examination period for high-value patents was reduced to 14 months, the average examination period for invention patents was reduced to 20 months, and the average examination period for trademark registration applications was reduced to 4 months. The structure of domestic invention patents has been continuously optimized. 281,000 domestic invention patents were valid for more than 10 years, accounting for 12.3 percent of the total, up 1 percentage point from the previous year. The number of domestic enterprises with valid invention patents totaled 246,000, an increase of 33,000 over the previous year, among which high-tech enterprises held nearly 60% of the invention patents.