Patent Infringement | "The rise and rise of China as an IP superpower"

By : Joff Wild 
Source : http://www.iam-magazine.com 
Category : Patent Infingement 

Here’s something I bet you did not know: in 2010, 82.6% of all utility model applications filed in the world were filed at China’s State IP Office. In numerical terms, that equates to 409,836 out of a total of 496,000. Second place Germany saw 17,006 applications, or just over 3% of the total. While this number is the biggest, you’ll find further proof of China’s IP superpower status by looking at all the categories covered in WIPO’s IP Facts and Figures 2012.

The country is also number one in industrial design filings, accounting for 63% (421,273) of the 669,000 applications across the globe in 2010; while it finds itself at number one as well for trademark applications with 19.3%, or just over one million, of those filed in 2010. The US, in second place, accounted for 6.8% of applications (377,964). However, in patents the Americans are still in top spot. The 490,226 filings the USPTO received in 2010 made up just over 24% of the global market. But even here the Chinese are catching up fast, with SIPO receiving 391,177 applications or 19.8% of the total. It would be no huge surprise if by the time next year’s WIPO stats-fest is compiled China is pre-eminent in this area too.

While IP filings do not tell us much about innovation, what they do tell us is that companies looking to do business in China would be mad not to consider their own IP positions and those of potential domestic and international rivals before beginning operations. What’s more, when it comes to patents and related rights, the amount of prior art held on SIPO databases must be huge. Potentially, there is a lot of material residing in Chinese language documents that could strike out any number of patents, some of them perhaps crucial in industries and extremely valuable. Even if that is not the case right now, it is bound to be increasingly so in the future: food for thought for both in-house and private practice patent attorneys. Fortunately, access to Chinese material is beginning to open up. But even so, to be a patent attorney and be fluent in Mandarin must be wonderful. Are there any more marketable people in IP right now?

Source : http://www.iam-magazine.com/blog/Detail.aspx?g=27d6184e-23e0-4705-a937-197b3ce09949