Rapid growth of IP-related applications seen in China

China saw a rapid growth of applications involving intellectual property rights and stronger support in this regard last year, thanks to the country's increasingly intensified efforts on IPR protection and development.

A report issued by a development and research center with the China National Intellectual Property Administration, the country's top IPR regulator, on Friday showed that the number of authorized invention patents reached 434,000 last year, up 22.5 percent year-on-year, and the figure of copyrights registered nationwide was also over 5 million, a 20.4 percent increase year-on-year.

Bai Jianfeng, deputy head of the center, said the rising numbers mean a dynamic IPR development in the country, adding that such powerful innovation should be attributed to stricter IPR protection in recent years.

According to the report, China has seen a more complete legal system involving IPR, and its judicial and administrative protection on IPR have also been further strengthened last year.

The Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, the country's top legislative body, for example, passed amendments to the Patent Law and the Copyright Protection in 2020, with further clarifications of criminal charges involving IPR by revising the Criminal Law, it said.

The number of IPR-related prosecutions rose to 5,848 last year from 1,432 in 2008, it said, adding the Supreme People's Procuratorate, the nation's top procuratorial authority, also established an office specializing in handling IPR-related affairs and cases.

While lauding the recent years' efforts in protecting and developing IPR nationwide, Bai said such efforts need to be kept and further intensified to meet new goals in a central plan.

In September, the Communist Party of China Central Committee and the State Council, the country's Cabinet, jointly released a development plan on IPR, in which it set goals and tasks on protecting IPR and developing relevant industries in the next 15 years.

The plan requires much stricter IPR protection by 2025, with a high level of public satisfaction and greater market value of IPR, adding that China's IPR competitiveness will rank among the top in the world by 2035.