On 9 July 2020, China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA) released during a press briefing the intellectual property (IP)-related statistics of China for the first half of 2020, covering data on patents, trademarks, geographical indications (GIs), and layout-designs of integrated circuits (ICs).

 

During the first six months of 2020, 683,490 invention patent applications (up 5% year-on-year) were filed with CNIPA, of which 606,936 were filed by domestic applicants; whereas PCT international patent applications accepted by CNIPA amounted to 29,548 (up 22.6% year-on-year), of which 26,800 were filed by domestic applicants. As for patent grants, CNIPA granted 217,171 invention patents (down 8.8% year-on-year) during the period, and 176,014 of them were received by domestic applicants.

 

For trademarks, during the period, 4,284,040 trademark applications (up 24.6% year-on-year) were filed with CNIPA, while the number of applications for international trademark registration under the Madrid Protocol stood at 3,875 (up 36% year-on-year), and 2,629,211 marks (down 25% year-on-year) were registered at CNIPA.

 

Regarding examination cycles during the period, the examination cycle for invention patent applications was kept within 20.3 months, for high value patent applications within 15.2 months, utility model patent applications within 6.4 months, design patent applications within 3.2 months, and trademark applications within 4.5 months.

 

As for geographical indications, during the first half of 2020, CNIPA registered 364 GIs as trademarks (2019 first half: 229), and permitted 322 enterprises (2019 first half: 116) to use GIs on their products. And for layout-designs of ICs, CNIPA received 5,176 applications (2019 first half: 2,904) and certified 5,262 applications (2019 first half: 2,487) thereof during the period.