BOFIT Viikkokatsaus / BOFIT Weekly Review 2016/48
Last year over 1.2 million patents were granted globally, an increase of 5 % from 2014. Most of the increase came from China. China’s patent office granted nearly 360,000 patents last year, making it the largest patent office in the world, surpassing the United States. WIPO estimated that there were 10.6 million patents in force last year, of which 25 % were in the United States, 18 % in Japan and 14 % in China.
China’s central and local governments strongly support patent activity, which has led to an emphasis on quantity, rather than quality, of patent applications submitted. Moreover, the Chinese still mostly seek protection under domestic patents. The number of international patent applications severely lags e.g. the US, Japan and Germany. Nevertheless, it seems that China is developing rapidly both in terms of patent quality and international applicability. The Chinese telecom giants Huawei and ZTE have for years been ranked among the three largest international patent seekers (PCT).
Chinese R&D spending amounted to 2.1 % of GDP last year. In the US, R&D spending is 2.7 % of GDP and the OECD average is about 2.4 % of GDP.