China Celebrates 30th Anniversary of Patent Law

On April 1st, 2015, China's Patent Law welcomes its 30th year since enforcement. During the 30 years, China's patent system has seen remarkable success. The capability of patent creation has been upgrading. The amount of patent applications continues growing over the years, and both quality and quantity have been seen positive changes. The capability of market players using patents is rising, and the scale and efficiency of patent industrialization gradually expanded. Since 1985, China has received 15.455 million patent applications by the end of 2014. 663,000 invention patents were granted, excluding Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan. Every 10 thousand people in China owns 4.9 invention patents.

On April 1st, 1985, China's first patent law was put into implement. During the 30 years, the Chinese Patent Law experienced three amendments, and many departmental regulations were made out, which conducted the patent laws and regulations in line with international rules. In 1992, to meet the needs of reform and opening up policy and the establishment of a socialist market economy, the law was amended for the first time; in 2000, in order to further adapt to China's economic construction and reform and opening up after joining the WTO, the law was amended for the second time; in 2008, in order to further enhance the capability of independent innovation and serve for national innovation, the law was amended for the third time. Currently, a new round of patent law amendment is under way. The implement and amendment of patent law has been promoting the development of China's patent law system and has created a good social atmosphere and legal environment for China's economic construction and technological innovation.

The patent system has become the tool of upgrading China's innovation capacity and economic and social development. Since 2011, the amount of China's invention patent applications has ranked the first for years in the world. Chinese patent applicants in foreign countries see a substantial growth. Since 1994, when China joined the Patent Cooperation Treaty, by the end of 2013, China's total PCT applications reached 127,500. These achievements embodied the innovation wisdom of the whole society, and witnessed the rapid increase of innovation capability in just 30 years, China's innovation ability, and revealed the tremendous changes brought by the enforcement of the patent system in China.