According to Bloomberg, in less than 10 years, Chinese companies have doubled the number of patents they receive in the United States, and as the world's second-largest economy, China has been trying hard to transform itself from a factory in Silicon Valley to a research base.
IFI Claims Patent Services released a report on Tuesday, the data in the report show that in the year of 2017, Chinese inventors totaled 11,241 U.S. patents, up by 28% over the same period of 2016,
These patents enabled China to become one of the top 5 countries in the world that won the largest number of U.S. patents in the world for the first time, lagging behind the United States, Japan, South Korea and Germany.
Chinese patent application
The number of patents can often reflect the innovation ability of a company or a country.Patent not only makes a company appear tall, more importantly, it can protect the interests of enterprises in the fierce market competition.After the United States got the patent, Companies can sell their products safely in the largest market in the world.
For the past ten years, China has always regarded innovation as one of its major goals, which has also led to the growing number of patent applications filed in mainland China, thus creating a business that can compete on the international stage. Some of these patent applications From Chinese companies, and some from foreign companies.
The World Intellectual Property Organization report shows that in 2016, the State Intellectual Property Office (SIPO) in China received 1.3 million patent applications, surpassing the sum of patent applications received by the United States, Japan, South Korea and European countries.
In terms of the share of U.S. patents, China still has some distance from the leading countries, and IFI figures show that the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office approved 32,0003 patents in 2016 and Chinese companies accounted for 3.5% of the patents.
Larry Cady, senior analyst at IFI, said: 'Nevertheless, China's growth rate is still impressive.'
China's electronics manufacturers, once the main business is the assembly of products for foreign companies, but in recent years they began to develop their own technology and their own brands and products.
For example, BOE Technology Group, China's leading manufacturer of computer and television display panels, saw a 63% increase in patents over the previous year and 21th among IFI's 50-largest patenting firm, which is now ahead of Japan Of Seiko Epson, a little behind General Electronics, their number of patents is only 200 less than GM.
Li Xinguo, BOE Vice President and Head of Intellectual Property and Technology Management Center, said: "The United States has a huge global influence in the field of technological innovation. Under the background of global integration, Chinese enterprises have made great achievements in high-tech innovation and international competition improvement. '
BOE is currently investing in a new generation of OLED screen technology and hopes to provide high-resolution displays for businesses such as Apple.
Huawei, the country's largest communications equipment maker, got 1,474 U.S. patents last year, a 61% gain over BOE, giving them a 20-for-50 discount on the top 50. The company entered the list as early as 2014 The number of U.S. patents obtained by Shenzhen Huaxing Power in 2017 increased by 25% over the previous year, ranking No. 45. However, not all Chinese enterprises have seen growth and ZTE Corporation last year The number of patents dropped by 16%.
Most of these patents obtained by Chinese companies are in high-tech industries such as digital data processing and transmission, semiconductors and wireless communications, etc. The growing industries include 3D processing, machine learning and UAVs At present, many Chinese enterprises invest in these fields.
Jenny Chen, a lawyer with Boston-based law firm Wolf Greenfield, said that some educated Chinese after graduation set up biotech startups that are researching antibodies to cancer and are also applying U.S. patent.
Chen said: 'These companies are targeting the global market and obtaining patents in the United States is an indispensable step toward their business, and if they do not have the protection of U.S. patents, they will not be able to attract investment from the global market.'