In 2022, 645 new patent agencies were established nationwide, and 5 foreign patent agencies were approved to set up permanent representative offices; 51,510,000 people registered for the patent agent qualification examination, and 6,775 people passed the examination.
Recently, the State Intellectual Property Office released the "National Intellectual Property Agency Industry Development Status (2022)" (hereinafter referred to as "Development Status"), according to the statistical data analysis shows that in 2022, China's intellectual property agency industry continues to develop healthily, showing a more sound policy and system system, the scale of patent agency continues to grow, the order of trademark agency is increasingly standardized, the reform of agency approval continues to deepen, the agency The industry supervision has been continuously strengthened, providing strong support for accelerating the construction of a strong IPR country and high-quality economic development.
Steady expansion of scale
(hereinafter referred to as "Opinions"), "Regulations on the Supervision and Administration of Trademark Agencies", "Measures for the Administration of Foreign Patent Agencies to Establish Permanent Representative Offices in China" and a series of other policy and institutional documents were issued to provide strong guarantee for the high-quality development of the IP agency industry. In particular, in December 2022, the State Intellectual Property Office and 17 other departments jointly issued the Opinions, which depicted in detail a grand blueprint for the high-quality development of the IP service industry in four aspects, including comprehensive optimization of the development environment, continuous improvement of the industry's contribution, more sound service system and significant enhancement of the support role, and made a systematic plan for the development of China's IP service industry in the coming period.
The State of Development shows that along with the rapid development of China's intellectual property industry, the patent agency industry has made great progress. At present, the number of patent agencies nationwide still maintains rapid growth. By the end of 2022, the total number of patent agencies reached 4,520, an increase of 586 year-on-year, with an annual growth rate of nearly 15%.
In 2022, the number of practicing patent agents in China reached 31,347,000, an increase of 16.8% compared with 2021. The number of licensed patent attorneys continues to grow rapidly, showing the good momentum of continuous growth of the scale of personnel in China's patent agency industry.
In order to continuously optimize the business environment and release the vitality of enterprise innovation and creativity, the State Intellectual Property Office thoroughly implemented the Implementation Plan for the Nationwide Implementation of the Reform of the Informed Commitment System for Patent Agency Practice Licensing and Approval, deepened the reform of the Informed Commitment System for Patent Agency Practice Licensing and Approval, simplified the approval process and optimized the approval services. 316 of the patent agencies approved for establishment in 2022 were approved by the Informed Among the patent agencies approved to be established in 2022, 316 of them were approved in the form of notification and commitment, accounting for 49% of the new agencies established in that year.
Continuous Strengthening of Supervision
In terms of strengthening the supervision of the agency industry, in 2022, the State Intellectual Property Office promoted the "Blue Sky" special rectification action of the intellectual property agency industry and cracked down on illegal and irregular agency practices. The State Intellectual Property Office has improved the regulatory system, improved the regulatory system, focused on supervision, clarified the regulatory tasks, coordinated supervision, promoted credit supervision, intelligent supervision, and improved the effectiveness of supervision, so that the regulatory system and mechanism are more perfect, the deployment of special operations is more thorough, the deterrent effect is more prominent, and the effectiveness of industry supervision is further enhanced.
In the field of trademarks, trademark agency order is increasingly standardized, and the market environment is constantly optimized. By the end of 2022, the number of trademark agencies nationwide reached 71,466,000. In order to further regulate the order of the trademark agency industry and promote the healthy development of the trademark agency industry, in accordance with the new requirements for filing in the "Regulations on the Supervision and Administration of Trademark Agencies", the State Intellectual Property Office organized the re-filing of trademark agencies. 16,921,000 agencies were audited and approved by the re-filing from January to March 2023, plus 1,175 new agencies filed during this period, at present, the national new Recorded trademark agencies a total of 18,096,000, all signed the trademark agency practice informed commitment.
In March 2022, the Ministry of Commerce, the State Intellectual Property Office and other seven departments jointly issued a notice announcing the list of special service export bases in four fields, including intellectual property services, and nine administrative districts (functional areas), including Jiangning District of Nanjing, were recognized as the first batch of intellectual property service Jiangning District of Nanjing and other 9 administrative districts (functional areas) were recognized as the first batch of export bases of special services in the field of intellectual property services. Subsequently, the "Notice on the Construction of Specialized Service Export Bases" was issued, requiring all regions to comprehensively promote the construction of bases in accordance with the principle of "departmental coordination, provincial coordination and base implementation", further clarifying the importance of base construction, improving base construction programs, strengthening information reporting and researching and submitting opinions and suggestions. We further clarified the matters of attaching great importance to base construction, improving the base construction program, strengthening information reporting and researching opinions and suggestions.
At present, the activity of "strengthening capacity and improving quality" for the construction of intellectual property agency industry has been launched. "In the future, we should accelerate the transformation of IP agency services from the pursuit of quantity to the pursuit of quality, establish the sense of responsibility of 'quality first, quality first', take high quality as the main theme and hard task for the development of IP agency business in the new era, and continue to deepen the implementation, implement the effect and persevere. Continuously strengthen service capacity and improve service quality." The relevant person in charge of the State Intellectual Property Office said.