China Breaks into Global Top Three PCT Filers

According to the latest statistics issued by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), China climbed to the third place in the world with 21,516 patent filings under WIPO's Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT)in 2013, up 15.6% and for the first time over 20,000.

According to the statistics, the total number of PCT applications filed in 2013 in the world amounted to 205,000, up 5.1% compared with 2012. The top five countries are U.S. (57,239), Japan (43,918), China (21,516), Germany (17,927) and South Korea (12,386). China for the first time surpassed Germany to become the third largest user of the PCT system, accounting for 10.5% of the total filings. ZTE Corporation of China with 2,309 published PCT applications was overtaken by Panasonic Corporation of Japan (2,881) as the second largest enterprise applicant in 2013. Huawei Technologies, Co. of China ranked the third with 2,094 PCT applications from the fourth in 2012.

"The drive for international market and the government's incentive policy account for the main reasons of the rapid growth of China's PCT filings." Xu Chunming, the vice executive president in the IP Institute of Shanghai University, said in an interview with CIP News. The increasing internalization of China's enterprises, the improving product structure as well as the increasing high-tech products drive China to layout international patents. Moreover, China's patent incentive policy, to an extent, also inspires China's enterprises to file PCT applications.

"It is inspiring to see the rapid growth of China's PCT filings. However, there is still a gap between China and the developed countries,"said Xu Chunming, who mentioned that China still lagged behind the U.S. and Japan in PCT filings. The PCT applications of the U.S. and Japan respectively account for 27.9% and 21.4% of the total, and the two countries respectively occupy 15 and 20 of the top 50 positions of enterprise applicants.

"Hence, the quality of PCT applications should be attached great importance to. Ultimately,the real goal of PCT filings is to enhance the international competitiveness of enterprises and optimize the industrial structure." According to Xu, the key to narrowing the gap between China and other countries is to adjust the economic structure and improve the innovation capability.