China sees patents, trademarks filed by foreign entities rise

China recorded a stable growth of patents and trademarks applied by foreign entities last year, showing intellectual property was playing a bigger role in promoting the country's high-quality opening-up, IP regulators said.

In 2022, the number of valid invention patents applied by foreign entities in China rose by 4.5 percent compared with that in 2021, bringing the total to 861,000, said Hu Wenhui, deputy head of the China National Intellectual Property Administration, at a news conference on Monday.

Last year's patents involved 58,000 foreign enterprises, 2,000 more than that in 2021, he said.

The figure of valid trademarks registered by foreign entities increased by 5.9 percent year-on-year in 2022, bringing the total to 2.03 million, he added.

"The growth fully demonstrates that our efforts in IP protection have provided a sound business environment for foreign-invested enterprises in China," said Zhang Zhicheng, head of the administration's IP Protection Department, emphasizing that "we've given equal IP protection to companies, no matter where they're from."

He said the administration has set up 97 centers, including 10 new sites last year, to offer efficient IP-related services both for domestic and foreign companies and help them protect IP rights, adding that more than 2,900 foreign-invested and joint-venture enterprises have been put on record at the centers.

In addition, the administration has worked with other authorities, such as the Ministry of Commerce and the National Development and Reform Commission, to exchange IP-related messages involving foreign-invested companies to ensure their voices, difficulties and requests could be heard, he said.

"We've also compiled English version of IP protection achievements made by Chinese departments and then delivered to more than 340 chambers of commerce or organizations in more than 70 countries so as to help foreign-invested enterprises understand more about our efforts in IP protection," he said.

"We will strengthen IP protection and further optimize business environment to help foreign-invested companies better develop in our country," he added.