Recently, China National Intellectual Property Administration released the Patent Investigation Report of China in 2023 (hereinafter referred to as the Report). According to the survey data, at this stage, the effect of patent transformation in China has increased steadily, the cooperation and innovation in Industry-University-Research has achieved remarkable results, and the level of intellectual property protection has been continuously improved.
First, the industrialization rate of invention patents in China has been further improved. In 2023, the industrialization rate of invention patents in China was 39.6%, an increase of 2.9 percentage points over the previous year and a steady increase for five consecutive years. As the main body of innovation, the industrialization rate of invention patents of Chinese enterprises was 51.3%, up by 3.2 percentage points over the previous year. From the scale of enterprises, the industrialization rates of invention patents of large, medium, small and micro enterprises were 51.0%, 57.9%, 53.9% and 33.8% respectively, all of which were higher than that of the previous year.
Second, Industry-University-Research’s cooperation has effectively improved the effectiveness of patent transformation. In 2023, the average income of Industry-University-Research’s invention patent industrialization reached 10.332 million yuan/piece, which was 24.5% higher than the average income of’s invention patent industrialization (8.296 million yuan). The survey also shows that the proportion of enterprises solving key technologies or key parts problems through Industry-University-Research cooperation is the highest, reaching 56.1%, indicating that Industry-University-Research cooperation plays an important role in tackling key core technologies.
Third, the protection of intellectual property rights in China has continued to improve. In 2023, the proportion of Chinese patentees who had suffered patent infringement was 6.7%, down 1.0 percentage points from the previous year. In contrast, the proportion has been above 10% during the 13 th Five-Year Plan period and below 8% during the 14 th Five-Year Plan period. Among the cases involving enterprises in patent infringement litigation in China, the proportion of cases in which the amount of compensation, court mediation or out-of-court settlement is more than 5 million yuan is 8.4%, an increase of 1.4 percentage points over the previous year, and it has remained above 7% in the past three years, indicating that the illegal cost of intellectual property infringement in China is constantly increasing.
Fourth, the ranks of intellectual property talents in enterprises are growing. In 2023, 61.3% of China’s enterprise patentees have full-time intellectual property management personnel, 78.3% have part-time intellectual property management personnel, and only 8.6% of enterprise patentees have no full-time or part-time intellectual property management personnel. The survey also shows that 26.9% of enterprise patentees plan to expand the team of intellectual property management personnel in the coming year.
China’s patent investigation has gone through 16 years. In 2008, the Outline of National Intellectual Property Strategy was promulgated and implemented, and the patent investigation in China came into being. Over the years, with the strong support of local intellectual property management departments and respondents, the investigation work has been continuously deepened and improved. In 2023, the patent investigation further optimized the investigation content and organization mode, and strengthened the thematic analysis of Industry-University-Research’s cooperative innovation, overseas intellectual property protection, intellectual property talents and services from the perspective of "four chains" integration; Strengthen the linkage between the upper and lower levels, strengthen the provincial patent investigation in six places including Liaoning, Heilongjiang, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Jiangxi and Gansu, and give full play to the role of patent investigation platform; Using information technology in the survey means to realize the filling and answering of mobile phones, and constantly improve the convenience of filling and answering questionnaires.
The Report has been released to the public for the ninth consecutive year, which provides strong data support for relevant policy decisions, and also becomes an important window for the public to understand the development of China’s intellectual property cause, which has played a positive role in popularizing the patent system and enhancing the innovation consciousness of the whole society.