China Sees Patents, Trademarks Filed by Foreign Entities Rise
China recorded a stable growth of patents and trademarks applied by foreign entities last year, showing intellectual property was playing a bigger role in promoting the country's high-quality opening-up, IP regulators said.
In 2022, the number of valid invention patents applied by foreign entities in China rose by 4.5 percent compared with that in 2021, bringing the total to 861,000, said Hu Wenhui, deputy head of the China National Intellectual Property Administration, at a news conference on Monday.
Last year's patents involved 58,000 foreign enterprises, 2,000 more than that in 2021, he said.
The figure of valid trademarks registered by foreign entities increased by 5.9 percent year-on-year in 2022, bringing the total to 2.03 million, he added.
"The growth fully demonstrates that our efforts in IP protection have provided a sound business environment for foreign-invested enterprises in China," said Zhang Zhicheng, head of the administration's IP Protection Department, emphasizing that "we've given equal IP protection to companies, no matter where they're from."