China Approaching 1M Domestic Patent Filings Per Year

The State Intellectual Property Office of China (SIPO) has published some year-end statistics, and the numbers are striking - based on an annualized projection of Chinese patent filings (SIPO only gives 11 months in the report), over 780,000 applications were filed in the year, of which 213,000 are utility model applications and 290,000 are design patent applications. Just as in previous years, China ranks first in the world for total patent filings.

What is most striking about these numbers is that foreign applicants (including the US, Japan, and the EU), account for only 14% of the total. In fact, the Guangdong Region (i.e., the Canton Province) filed more applications in SIPO than the US and Japan combined. Foreign utility model filings account for less than 1% of the total, and for design applications, account for less than 5%.

From SIPO:

-- Total Applications for Patents Received from Home and Abroad (link)

-- Total Grants for Patents Received from Home and Abroad (link)

-- See main SIPO statistics page here (link)

See also Cong Cao, UPI Asia.com, "Has China become a patent powerhouse?" (link)

Although since 2001 China has witnessed an average annual growth of 20 percent in invention, utility model, and design patent applications, and invention patent applications have grown 25 percent year-on-year, with domestic enterprises growing 30 percent annually, invention patents account for only one-third of the patent applications. Domestic inventors are still more likely to file applications for utility model and design patents, or patents for incremental improvements over existing ones.

Thursday Shorts: Asia Patent White Papers, EPO Pendency Continues To Grow

Chinese Patent Statistics - research and analytics company Evaluserve released a white paper titled "Patenting Landscape in China - History, Growth and Utility Model", which discusses various statistics on Chinese patent practice, as well as strategies utilized by patent filers:

Some Chinese companies have adopted a strategy that involves filing 10-year patent applications and 20-year patent applications for the same invention on the same day, thereby ensuring the same priority date with the SIPO. Since a 10-year patent application is granted within a year (without substantive examination), the company can start producing, marketing and selling its “patented” product in China. If the corresponding 20-year patent is granted by the SIPO, the Chinese company can simply abandon the 10-year patent and enjoy a longer period of protection, whereas if the corresponding 20-year patent application is not granted by the SIPO after a substantive examination, then the Chinese company can still continue producing and marketing its product on the strength of the utility model it owns (unless it is challenged by another party and the 10-year patent is re-examined by the SIPO).

Download a copy of the white paper (free registration required) here.

Patenting Landscape in India - Evalueserve also released a white paper on patents in India, and takes a close look at who is filing what in the IPO. Interestingly, of the top 50 patent filers at the IPO, only four Indian organizations appear in the top 50 list. Realizing that the lack of awareness among domestic Indian companies, the Ministry of Industry of India recently announced its plans to launch a "national IP awareness campaign."

Download a copy of the India white paper (free registration required) here.

EPO Filers Seething At Delays - from a recent report from the BBC:

Delays in Europe of up to 10 years have left somewhere between five and ten million inventions globally queuing for approval, according to the head of European Patent Office, Alison Brimelow. She said the delays were bad for business and created uncertainty for innovators . . . patents in Europe were supposed to be granted in 36 months but often took four to five years. Some were dragged out for a decade.

Read "Patent delays frustrate inventors" (link)

Weekend Shorts - CAFC Statistics, China, Patent Reform, and New IAM Publications

State of the Federal Circuit: On May 15, 2008,Chief Judge Michel addressed the Federal Circuit Judicial Conference and gave a "State of the Court" speech on the CAFC. The transcript, along with some statistical charts, may be downloaded here (link). Some of the interesting factoids include:

• Despite over 100 Petitions for Rehearing En Banc each year (slide), the CAFC grants approximately zero to one each year.

• According to Chief Judge Michel, "[d]espite news reports of a surge in the last three years in the Supreme Court review of our patent cases, the data shows little change (slide). I believe these data illustrate how well our panels do in nearly all appeals."

• Cases continue to move faster in the CAFC. The court now approaches the ideal of achieving a disposal rate such that if no new appeals were filed, the CAFC would conclude all pending appeals in just six months (which is the standard recommended by the ABA).

Patent Filings in China: Domestic patent filings continue to skyrocket; this year, China becomes the first country to break the 700,000 patent filings per year barrier. Protection of design patents continues to be an untapped resource for foreign filers - the U.S. and other foreign entities make up about 5% of the 270,000 Chinese design patent applications. View the latest statistics from SIPO here (hat tip to professor Hal Wegner).

Bush Administration Looks to Re-Ignite Patent Reform: U.S. Secretary of Commerce Carlos Gutierrez reportedly met with technology leaders in San Jose to discuss ways in which Patent Reform can be salvaged for this year. According to Gutierrez, "arguably the first serious effort in 50 years to systematically improve our innovation pipeline has stalled in the Senate, in large part because of an inability to agree on how patent holders should be compensated in cases of infringement." View last week's op-ed piece in the Mercury News here.

Two New IAM Publications Available (Free) Online: (From the IAM Blog) IAM has just published two guides, both of which are available online and completely free of charge:

• Brands in the Boardroom, released to coincide with next week’s INTA meeting in Berlin, examines how Playboy and E&J Gallo manage their respective brands portfolios, and also takes an in-depth look at Google’s controversial AdWords program. In addition, there are a series of other articles detailing key trademark issues in some of the world’s major jurisdictions.

• Patents in Europe, first made publicly available the other week at the European Patent Forum in Ljubljana, has been produced in association with the European Patent Office. The publication is divided into two parts: in the first, chapters – including an introduction from EPO President Alison Brimelow – look at recent developments inside the EPO and in Europe generally; in the second, there are detailed guides on how patent litigation is conducted in 21 European jurisdictions, including all the big players.

For more info, see here.