According to the data released at a press conference on January 14th, the State Intellectual Property Office (SIPO) of China received over 1 million applications for invention patents in 2015, which hits a new record high over the years.

Data show that 1.102 million applications for invention patents were received in China in 2015, up 18.7 percent year on year, being the top patent application list of the world for 5 years; about 359,000 invention patents were authorized, 263,000 of which were granted to domestic applicants, 100,000 more than in 2014, up 61.9 percent year on year. By the end of 2015, China holds 872,000 valid patents of invention, and the patents per annum for each 10,000 head of population reached to 6.3.

Besides, SIPO released the details of China's patent data in 2015. There are 3 provinces (municipalities, not including Hongkong, Macao and Taiwan) obtaining over 30,000 invention patents in 2015, which are Jiangsu (36,015), Beijing (35,308) and Guangdong (33,477). China's top oil-refiner Sinopec obtained 2,844 invention patents, the most among all Chinese firms, followed by telecom giants ZTE (2,673) and Huawei (2,413).

Among the top ten foreign enterprises, Qualcomm gets to the top with 1,350 invention patents, followed by Canon (1,273), Toyota (1,240), Panasonic (1,117) and Mitsubishi Electrics (1,095). Some well-known foreign enterprises, like GM, Bosch, Philips, Siemens and Samsung are also on the list.

In 2015, SIPO received 30,548 PCT applications, up 16.7% year on year. 28,399 of them were from domestic users, making 93%, up 18.3% year on year; 2,149 were international, making 7.0%. There were 16 provinces (municipalities) that filed more than 100 PCT applications in 2015. The top 5 provinces (municipalities) for PCT applications were Guangdong (15,190), Beijing , Shanghai, Jiangsu and Zhejiang, which contributed to 85% of the total domestic PCT filings.

According to a representative from SIPO, China's invention patent applications increase faster than the other two kinds of patent applications in 2015 and surpass 1 million for the first time; the patents per annum for each 10,000 head of population reached to 6.3, achieved the goal of the 12th Five-Year Plan; enterprises played a more important role in domestic invention patents; despite the overall increase in patent applications, China still lags behind foreign countries in some fields, including optics and engines.