China attaches high importance to international patent cooperation, intellectual property protection: FM

(ECNS) -- The year 2024 marks the 30th anniversary of China’s entry into the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT). Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Wang Wenbin said on Wednesday that China attaches high importance to international patent cooperation and intellectual property (IP) protection.

“In the past three decades since China became a member of the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT), it has actively participated in the revision and improvement of PCT and other international rules, improved its legal system on IP and engaged in productive cooperation with the World Intellectual Property Organization,” Wang said.

China has been the top filer of international patent applications through PCT for four consecutive years, making itself one of the world’s leading countries in the area of IP and innovation, he added.

Wang pointed out that IP protection serves as a major pillar for innovative development. Building on its rich reservoir of patent technologies, China has been enhancing the quality and efficiency of its work on IP to unleash creativity at a faster pace.

He introduced that so far, China has filed 126,400 global patent applications for solar panels, ranking the first in the world. Top 10 NEV makers in China by sales possess over 100,000 global patents in force, leading the green and low-carbon sector and providing a strong impetus for world economic recovery.

“China has expanded opening up in IP protection and fostered a world-class business environment that is market-oriented, law-based, and internationalized. More and more foreign applicants are looking to do business and plan their patent portfolios in China,” he said.

Over the past decade or so, applicants from 115 Belt and Road partner countries filed applications for 253,000 patents in China, an annual increase of 5.4 percent. As of the end of 2022, a total of 861,000 invention patents were in force for overseas applicants in China, a year-on-year increase of 4.5 percent. This speaks to the foreign-funded companies’ recognition towards China’s effort in IP protection, he added.

“Looking forward, China will continue to uphold the principle of openness, inclusiveness, balance and benefits for all, strengthen exchanges and cooperation on IP with all countries, and advance a fairer and more just global governance on IP to deliver more benefits of innovation to people around the world and build a community with a shared future for mankind,” Wang said.