Beijing 2022 Bing Dwen Dwen Plush Chinese Zodiac-Dragon was officially released in November 2023. (PHOTO: XINHUA)

By Staff Reporters

This year marks the 30th anniversary of China's entry into the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT). China has been top-ranked in international patent applications through the PCT for four consecutive years, confirming its place as one of the world’s leading countries in the area of IP and innovation.

Meanwhile, according to the Global Innovation Index 2023, a report issued by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), China overtook the U.S. for the first time to top the list of countries with the highest number of science and technology clusters among the top 100.

China has 24 such clusters, while the U.S. follows with 21 and Germany ranks third with nine, according to the WIPO report. It also showed that the highest climbers in the ranking last year were three clusters in China. Shen Changyu, commissioner of China National Intellectual Property Administration, said, "Over the past year, China's international cooperation in intellectual property deepened and expanded, and its role in serving high-level opening-up became increasingly prominent."

In the past three decades since China became a member of the PCT, China has actively participated in the revision and improvement of the PCT and concerned international rules, improved its own legal system on IP, and engaged in productive cooperation with WIPO.

IP protection serves as a major pillar for innovative development. Building on its rich reservoir of patent technologies, China has enhanced the quality and efficiency of its work on IP to unleash creativity at a faster pace. Currently, China has filed 126,400 global patent applications for solar panels, ranking first in the world. Top 10 NEV makers in China by sales have over 100,000 global patents in force, leading the green and low-carbon sector and providing a strong impetus for global sustainable development.

China's Foreign Ministry Spokesperson, Wang Wenbin, said at the regular press conference on January 3, "China attaches high importance to international patent cooperation and intellectual property protection." China has expanded opening up in IP protection and fostered a world-class business environment that is market-oriented, law-based, and internationalized. This has resulted in more and more foreign applicants are looking to do business and plan their patent layout in China.

Over the past decade or so, applicants from 115 Belt and Road partner countries filed applications for 253,000 patents in China, an annual increase of 5.4 percent. As of the end of 2022, a total of 861,000 invention patents were in force for overseas applicants in China, a year-on-year increase of 4.5 percent. This speaks to the foreign-funded companies' recognition towards China's effort in IP protection.

Shen said China has taken an active part in international IP cooperation last year, and its IP progress has been recognized by the WIPO. The commercialization of IP achievements were also accelerated, with optimization of IP-related public services, which provided stronger support for industrial development and rewarded innovators.

"Specific rules for better implementation of the Trademark Law are expected to be amended, and the review standards for new fields and emerging businesses, including big data, artificial intelligence and gene technology, will be improved," he added.

Looking forward, China will continue to uphold the principle of openness, inclusiveness, balance and benefits for all, strengthen exchanges and cooperation on IP with all countries, and advance a fairer and more just global governance on IP to deliver more benefits of innovation to people around the world, and build a community with a shared future for mankind.?