“China Set to Overtake Japan as Third-Largest Patent Filer at European Patent Office”
China On Track to Overtake Japan
Hold onto your hats, folks! The patent landscape is shifting, and it’s all happening in the East. According to a recent analysis, China is poised to leapfrog Japan and claim the title of the third-largest patent filer at the European Patent Office (EPO) this year. Now that’s a turn-up for the books!
Chinese companies have been flexing their innovation muscles and embracing the international intellectual property system for IP protection with gusto. The latest data from the EPO reveals that Chinese companies and inventors filed a whopping 20,735 patent applications in 2023, hot on the heels of Japan’s 21,520 applications. Germany and the United States still lead the pack with 24,966 and 48,155 applications respectively.
Patent Growth: A Rising Dragon
In an exclusive interview with China Daily, Aidan Kendrick, chief business analyst at the EPO, revealed that patent applications from Chinese companies at the EPO grew by a solid 8.8 percent year-on-year in 2023. Now, I’m no fortune teller, but if one were to extrapolate these trends, China could very well move up a spot to rank third as early as 2024. You heard it here first!
According to Kendrick, this growth isn’t a flash in the pan. Patent filings from China at the EPO have more than doubled over the past five years. Chinese companies and research institutes now account for more than a tenth of all applications at the EPO. That’s no small potatoes!
Driving the Patent Boom: China’s Technical Fields
The main drivers for this growth in 2023 were increases in filings in China’s top two technical fields: electrical machinery, apparatus, energy (which includes battery technologies) and digital communication. In the sub-field of battery technology, China has increased its share significantly in the past five years, now accounting for 20 percent of all patent applications at the EPO.
Meanwhile, patent applications from Chinese firms have also seen a surge in organic fine chemistry. China National Chemical Corp even ranked No 5 in this technology field at the EPO in 2023 among all companies. Other fields, including medical technology and biotechnology, have also seen a significant uptick in patent applications from China.
Patent Diversity: China’s Innovation Across Sectors
“This shows that while Chinese companies are still highly specialized in key technologies, they are increasingly patenting in a diverse range of other fields, so innovation is taking place across key sectors,” Kendrick said. From digital communication and electrical machinery to medical technology and biotechnology, Chinese companies are leaving no stone unturned in their quest for innovation.
Specifically, Huawei has been the top applicant at the EPO in five of the past seven years. The company increased its filing in 2023 to more than 5,000 applications at the EPO. There are seven Chinese companies among the Top 50 applicants at the EPO including Huawei, ZTE, Contemporary Amperex, Oppo Mobile, Vivo Mobile, Xiaomi and Honor Device.
China’s Emphasis on Innovation and IP Protection
China’s recent emphasis on nurturing new quality productive forces is a clear indication of the country’s focus on innovation and IP protection. “The country’s remarkable growth in terms of patent applications shows that Chinese companies are increasingly protecting their inventions,” Kendrick said. The EPO has worked closely with the China National Intellectual Property Administration for nearly four decades to align and strengthen intellectual property protection in China and Europe.
So, there you have it. China’s patent prowess is on the rise, and it’s showing no signs of slowing down. Watch this space!