China to strengthen patent protection

BEIJING - China investigated 6,529 patent infringement cases in the first half of 2019, according to the National Intellectual Property Administration (NIPA) at a press conference on July 9.

A total of 238,000 invention patents were authorized in China in the first half of 2019, up 9.9 percent year-on-year.

Huawei Technologies Co Ltd had 2,314 invention patents authorized in the period, ranking first on the Chinese mainland.

SINOPEC ranked second with 1,595 authorized invention patents, and the smartphone maker Oppo ranked third with 1312.

By the end of June, China had 12.5 invention patents per 10,000 people, fulfilling the country's 13th Five-Year Plan (2016-2020) ahead of schedule, said Hu Wenhui, spokesperson for NIPA.

In the first half of the year, the number of foreign invention patent applications in China reached 78,000, up 8.6 percent year-on-year, with Japan, the United States and Germany ranking the top three. The number of foreign trademark applications in China reached 127,000, with an increase of 15.4 percent year-on-year, according to Hu.

The number of non-resident IPR applications is a weathervane that reflects a country's intellectual property protection level and business environment. The continued strong growth of foreign intellectual property applications in China shows the firm confidence of global innovation players in China's intellectual property protection and business environment, said Ge Shu, an official with NIPA.

"Once you build a comfortable nest for it, the phoenix will come," Ge quoted an ancient Chinese story to illustrate that China will continue to foster a business environment that respects the value of knowledge.

"We have always upheld equal protection of intellectual property rights of domestic and foreign enterprises," Hu said. "We hope the United States will also treat Chinese companies equally and fairly, and earnestly protect the legitimate rights of patent holders in the United States."