China sees growth in number of patent transfers

BEIJING -- China has witnessed growth in the number of patent transfers and licenses over the past year, the country's top intellectual property (IP) regulator said on Wednesday.

In 2021, the number of patent transfers and licenses nationwide reached 420,000, up 15 percent year-on-year. Among them, the growth rate in low-carbon industries such as green new energy is more than twice the national average, the National Intellectual Property Administration revealed at its monthly press conference.

The number of patent transfers and licenses in Chinese universities and research institutes reached 27,000, a year-on-year increase of 33.4 percent, of which 30 percent of the patents belonged to strategic emerging industries, a spokesperson for the administration said.

Lei Chaozi, head of the science and technology department of the Ministry of Education, attributed the progress to efforts in talent cultivation.

Many universities have set up secondary disciplines or interdisciplinary disciplines related to intellectual property, and over 100 Chinese universities have established IP undergraduate programs, with more than 12,000 students, said the official.

He also highlighted that university patent transfer and licensing agreements vaulted from 2,357 in 2012 to over 15,000 in 2021. The monetary value of patent commercialization amounted to 8.89 billion yuan ($1.3 billion) from 820 million yuan during the period.

"It is an achievement of both quantity and quality trending up simultaneously," Lei said.