Report on Creation Index of China’s Intellectual Property in Agriculture (2012) released

IPR creation ability is an important benchmark to weigh the indigenous innovative level and core competitiveness of enterprises, regions and countries. In order to measure the innovation level of the agricultural science and technology and the agricultural competitiveness of China objectively and accurately, the China Center for Intellectual Property in Agriculture (CCIPA) under the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, entrusted by the Science and Education Department of the Ministry of Agriculture, organized experts to analyze and form the report on Creation Index of China’s Intellectual Property in Agriculture. The report targets main types of Intellectual Property in Agriculture including New Varieties of Plants, Agricultural Invents and Utility Model Patent and Geographical Indication of Agricultural Products and so on. According to the fields of planting, husbandry, fishing, food, agrichemicals and Agricultural Biotechnology and relying on the announcements of New Varieties of Plants from the Ministry of Agriculture and the registration announcements of Geographical Indication of Agricultural Products from the Ministry of Agriculture, the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine and the State Administration of Industry and Commerce as well as the Patent Database from the State Intellectual Property Office, the report reflects the quantity trend, quality condition, geographical distribution, industry constitution, hot fields and top institutions of China’s Intellectual Property in Agriculture.

The gross of IPRs in agriculture increased rapidly. As of the end of 2011, China’s agricultural invention patent applications, grants and effective patents were respectively 178,757 pieces, 50,452 pieces and 32,985, among which, domestic applications took up 78.48% and domestic valid invention patents in agriculture accounted for 72.66%. In recent 5 years, the average growth rate of China’s patent applications in agriculture was 26.37%; the applications and grants for the new varieties of plants in agriculture were respectively 9,016 and 3,713, up 13.62% and 6.46% compared with the year 2010, of which domestic applications and grants took up 93.84% and 98.14%. Till the end of 2011, geographical indications registered in the Ministry of Agriculture, General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine and the State Administration for Industry and Commerce reached 3,362, among which domestic agricultural geographic indications were 3,208, 718 more than that in 2010, rising by 32.85%.

The agricultural IPR quality was improved gradually. In terms of planting area of recommended granted varieties, recommended corn planting area was 37.41%, winter wheat was 37.32%, hybrid rice was 12.45%, soy bean was 25.81% and conventional cotton was 38.41%. However, the overall quality of domestic agricultural patents was still lower than that overseas, and the domestic agricultural invention patent grant rate was 41.91%, obviously lower than 52.10% abroad.

In the applications and grants of new varieties of plants, main crop varieties accounted for 80%. In the 3,208 pieces of registered domestic agricultural product geographical indications, primary agricultural products took the lion’s share and were mainly tea, rice, dates, oranges and hot peppers. In patent applications in agriculture, foodstuff took up 27.89%, agricultural biotechnology accounted for 25.43%, crop production occupied 20.59% and agrichemical products took up 14.67%.

Scientific and educational entities were the main players in IPR creation. 63.56% of domestic granted varieties and 44.74% of domestic granted invention patents were from scientific and educational agencies. In recent years, the R&D ability of domestic businesses was obviously improved and in 2011, the applications for variety right filed by domestic businesses and individuals outnumbered those from scientific and educational entities for the first time.

Moreover, IPR creation in agriculture is unbalanced in regions. As of the end of 2011, the total amount of variety applications from the first three provinces (Henan Province, Sichuan Province and Shandong Province) was 2,168, accounting for 25.62%; the number of registered domestic agricultural product geographical indications was 3,208, mainly from Shandong, Sichuan, Zhejiang and Fujian and taking up 34.95% of the total amount; the resources of agricultural product geographical indications in Xinjiang, Qinghai, Tibet, Yunnan, Gansu and Shanxi need further exploitation. The first five provinces in invention patent applications in agriculture were Jiangsu (14,508), Beijing (14,467), Shanghai (13,253), Shandong (11,731) and Guangdong (10,025) and the total number of the five provinces accounted for 45.70% of the invention patent applications in agriculture. According to the statistics, invention patent applications filed by agricultural S&T researchers at home were only 5.4 pieces for one hundred people per year, far behind 12 pieces said in the national Twelfth Five-Year general plan for S&T development.