China Debuts in Top Five in Housing U.S. Patents

Chinese companies obtained 11,241 more U.S. patents in 2017, up 28%, making China, for the very first time, a top five country in the department of owning U.S. patents. The number of U.S. patents obtained by Chinese companies increased by ten-fold in the last decade, according to statistics issued by a U.S. research institute.　

"What Chinese companies have done in securing patents is impressive," said Sun Guorui, professor of Law School of Beihang University. "China has been spotted many times in a number of world's influential innovation lists, and it reflected that China has made significant achievements in implementing its innovation-driven development strategy and building China into an IP power house." 　

Among the 320,000 patents granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office in 2017, 3.5% of which were obtained by Chinese companies. The local U.S. companies claimed ownership to 148,139, accounting for 46% of the total. The rest of the top five countries were Japan (50,600), South Korea (20,970) and Germany (15,771).　　

"For all the remarkable gains Chinese companies have made in this regard, the statistic show that there still exists a big gap between China and the rest of the elite group, particularly Japan and Korea. The fierce market competition has proved that patent is power, and Chinese companies still have a long and hard journey to go before they can catch up with their counterparts. "said Sun.　　

In fact, the outstanding achievements Chinese companies have made can be explained by the fact that most of those patents were obtained in digital data processing and transmission, semiconductor and wireless communication field. In parallel, many Chinese companies are redoubling their efforts to catch up counterparts with in 3D printing, artificial intelligence and drone. In recent years, thanks to China's implementation of innovation-driven strategy and building itself into an IP power house, a group of IP advanced companies have been increasing their efforts in patenting strategically overseas and accelerating their path to go abroad. Although innovation has been the core competitive advantage of the U.S. and other developed countries, China has made remarkable gains in developing quantum communication and supercomputer technologies, making China emerge in the world as another super innovation center, according to foreign media.

"As IP become a burning issue for the new round of world competition, Chinese companies should make concert efforts to beef up R&D, build more IP advanced companies and obtain high-quality patents. Only by doing so can Chinese companies remain invincible in international competition landscape," stressed Sun.