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October 6, 2010,
China Poised to Lead World in Patent Filings
By DAVID BARBOZA
SHANGHAI — Having passed Germany (exports), Japan (gross domestic product) and the United States (auto sales) over the past year, China is now poised to lead the world in yet another category: patent application filings.
A new study released this week by Thomson Reuters says that by 2011 China will most likely pass the United States and Japan in new patent applications.
With research and development spending rising here, and Beijing trying to encourage innovation, patent application filings in China are soaring.
In 2009, China filed about 279,298 patent applications, ranking third behind Japan, which led the world with 357,338, and the United States, which had 321,741 filings, according to Thomson Reuters.
But the growth of patent filings in Japan and the United States is slowing, while Chinese patent filings are surging in categories as varied as natural products and polymers and digital computers.
Patents are considered a measure of technology prowess and innovation. While the quality and value of patents vary widely, nations that file the largest number of patents are generally home to innovative corporations and Nobel prize winners.
Experts acknowledge that it is difficult to measure the value of China’s patents (many may be for low-end, incremental technologies), but they say the quality appears to be improving and that China is on a path to becoming a more innovative country.
“It’s clear they’re moving from low technology to high-tech,” says Bob Stembridge, an intellectual property analyst at Thomson Reuters. “We’re seeing a stunning emergence of patent filings in digital computing and data communications over the past few years — close to 4,000 percent.”
The innovation push here is significant because China is best known for low-cost manufacturing and weak protection of intellectual property rights. But the nation’s leaders have promised to improve intellectual property rights protections and to back Chinese companies that seek to move up the value chain and produce more sophisticated and valuable products.
The emergence of more innovative companies in China could move the Chinese government to better enforce existing regulations — many of which cover global companies operating here.
One major change already under way here is a new emphasis on research and development.
Analysts say innovation is often fueled by research and development spending, and here too China is making progress, aided by government subsidies and encouragement.
Last year, for instance, while some of the world’s biggest technology companies slashed their R&D spending, some of China’s best known technology companies increased their R&D budgets, according to the World Intellectual Property Organization.
For instance, American technology companies like Motorola, Freescale Semiconductor and Hewlett-Packard all made sizable cuts to their R&D spending in 2009, after the outbreak of the global financial crisis. But many Chinese technology companies increased their R&D budgets by 25 to 45 percent, according to the World Intellectual Property Organization.
Near the top of China’s list of patent filings and research and development spending are several of the country’s most dynamic companies, led by Chinese telecom equipment giants Huawei Technologies and ZTE.
Each company has expanded aggressively by selling equipment to telephone companies in developing countries. But they are also trying to expand into Europe and the United States.
Huawei filed more patents than any company in the world in 2008, and was a close second to Panasonic in 2009.
Below are lists of Chinese companies and institutions that filed the most patents in digital computing and in data transmission in 2009 — two of the hottest growth categories here, according to Thomson Reuters.
Top 10 Organizations in Digital Computing Patents from China
Rank Company Count
1 ZHONGXING COMMUNICATION (ZTE COMMUNICATION) 1566
2 HUAWEI TECHNOLOGIES 1119
3 UNIV BEIJING AERONAUTICS&ASTRONAUTIC 604
4 Zhejiang University 399
5 Shanghai University 377
6 YINGYEDA 304
7 Tsinghua University 301
8 INVENTEC CORP 222
9 NANJING University 208
10 H3C TECHNOLOGIES CO LTD 201
Top 10 Organizations in Telephone and Data Transmission Systems
Rank Company Count
1 ZHONGXING COMMUNICATION (ZTE COMMUNICATION) 2841
2 HUAWEI TECHNOLOGIES 2139
3 DA TANG MOBILE COMMUNICATION EQUIP 317
4 UNIV BEIJING TECHNOLOGY 270
5 UNIV BEIJING POSTS & TELECOM 160
6 Tsinghua UNIVERSITY 143
7 SAMSUNG 120
8 HANGZHOU HUASAN COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY 118
9 UNIV NANJING POSTS&TELECOM 110
10 TENCENT TECHNOLOGY 102 102
China Poised to Lead World in Patent Filings
By DAVID BARBOZA
SHANGHAI — Having passed Germany (exports), Japan (gross domestic product) and the United States (auto sales) over the past year, China is now poised to lead the world in yet another category: patent application filings.
A new study released this week by Thomson Reuters says that by 2011 China will most likely pass the United States and Japan in new patent applications.
With research and development spending rising here, and Beijing trying to encourage innovation, patent application filings in China are soaring.
In 2009, China filed about 279,298 patent applications, ranking third behind Japan, which led the world with 357,338, and the United States, which had 321,741 filings, according to Thomson Reuters.
But the growth of patent filings in Japan and the United States is slowing, while Chinese patent filings are surging in categories as varied as natural products and polymers and digital computers.
Patents are considered a measure of technology prowess and innovation. While the quality and value of patents vary widely, nations that file the largest number of patents are generally home to innovative corporations and Nobel prize winners.
Experts acknowledge that it is difficult to measure the value of China’s patents (many may be for low-end, incremental technologies), but they say the quality appears to be improving and that China is on a path to becoming a more innovative country.
“It’s clear they’re moving from low technology to high-tech,” says Bob Stembridge, an intellectual property analyst at Thomson Reuters. “We’re seeing a stunning emergence of patent filings in digital computing and data communications over the past few years — close to 4,000 percent.”
The innovation push here is significant because China is best known for low-cost manufacturing and weak protection of intellectual property rights. But the nation’s leaders have promised to improve intellectual property rights protections and to back Chinese companies that seek to move up the value chain and produce more sophisticated and valuable products.
The emergence of more innovative companies in China could move the Chinese government to better enforce existing regulations — many of which cover global companies operating here.
One major change already under way here is a new emphasis on research and development.
Analysts say innovation is often fueled by research and development spending, and here too China is making progress, aided by government subsidies and encouragement.
Last year, for instance, while some of the world’s biggest technology companies slashed their R&D spending, some of China’s best known technology companies increased their R&D budgets, according to the World Intellectual Property Organization.
For instance, American technology companies like Motorola, Freescale Semiconductor and Hewlett-Packard all made sizable cuts to their R&D spending in 2009, after the outbreak of the global financial crisis. But many Chinese technology companies increased their R&D budgets by 25 to 45 percent, according to the World Intellectual Property Organization.
Near the top of China’s list of patent filings and research and development spending are several of the country’s most dynamic companies, led by Chinese telecom equipment giants Huawei Technologies and ZTE.
Each company has expanded aggressively by selling equipment to telephone companies in developing countries. But they are also trying to expand into Europe and the United States.
Huawei filed more patents than any company in the world in 2008, and was a close second to Panasonic in 2009.
Below are lists of Chinese companies and institutions that filed the most patents in digital computing and in data transmission in 2009 — two of the hottest growth categories here, according to Thomson Reuters.
Top 10 Organizations in Digital Computing Patents from China
Rank Company Count
1 ZHONGXING COMMUNICATION (ZTE COMMUNICATION) 1566
2 HUAWEI TECHNOLOGIES 1119
3 UNIV BEIJING AERONAUTICS&ASTRONAUTIC 604
4 Zhejiang University 399
5 Shanghai University 377
6 YINGYEDA 304
7 Tsinghua University 301
8 INVENTEC CORP 222
9 NANJING University 208
10 H3C TECHNOLOGIES CO LTD 201
Top 10 Organizations in Telephone and Data Transmission Systems
Rank Company Count
1 ZHONGXING COMMUNICATION (ZTE COMMUNICATION) 2841
2 HUAWEI TECHNOLOGIES 2139
3 DA TANG MOBILE COMMUNICATION EQUIP 317
4 UNIV BEIJING TECHNOLOGY 270
5 UNIV BEIJING POSTS & TELECOM 160
6 Tsinghua UNIVERSITY 143
7 SAMSUNG 120
8 HANGZHOU HUASAN COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY 118
9 UNIV NANJING POSTS&TELECOM 110
10 TENCENT TECHNOLOGY 102 102
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