China steps up efforts increasing intl cooperation on IP protection

China has stepped up efforts in increasing international cooperation on intellectual property protection, to improve its competitiveness with a rapid growth of patent applications from overseas, a senior IP regulator said.

"IP has played a more significant role in supporting our opening-up and economic globalization, and it's a strategic resource for a national development as well as a core element for the competition in the world," said Ge Shu, head of the Strategic Planning Department with the China National Intellectual Property Administration, the country's top IP regulator.

He made the remark at a news conference on Wednesday, revealing that the number of granted invention patents applied for by Chinese enterprises in major countries and regions around the world reached 46,000 in 2021, up 14.1 percent year-on-year.

In a patent survey report issued during the press meeting, about 38 percent of Chinese companies transferred their patents or permitted the use of patents to countries and regions involved in the Belt and Road Initiative this year.

"It demonstrates that IP trade has become more important in promoting the initiative," Ge said.

He also noted that innovation of domestic companies has been stimulated, saying that their independent research capacities have also been strengthened.

A number of enterprises in the survey reflected the difficulty of introducing patent technologies from overseas, especially from the United States and Europe, but 84.1 percent of them chose to increase investments in self-innovation to cope with the problem.

"It can be seen that our market entities have been taking initiative to improve the innovation and promote self-reliance in development," Ge said.

While encouraging more enterprises to go global, he emphasized that their efforts in protecting IP rights should be further intensified.

According to the report, two-thirds of domestic companies in the survey did not obtain patent protection when they exported products abroad.

"On one hand, it means that the patent quality of some enterprises isn't high enough, while on the other hand, it shows that some companies and their products are vulnerable to IP risks in the overseas development," he added.

Highlighting IP rights in the international trade, he said that the administration will keep supporting and helping domestic enterprises in IP protection overseas to better serve the country's opening-up.