The China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA) recently released intellectual property filing data for August 2020 showing a continued stabilization in patent filings after the recent upsurge.  Invention patent application filings were flat compared to July 2020 at 134,532 filings while utility model applications were up slightly at 285,720 versus 269,928 filings in July 2020.  However, both numbers are significantly higher than August 2019 by 20.7% for invention patent application filings and 46.5% for utility model application filings.

Cumulative filings for invention patents applications through August 2020 was 952,210 versus 879,305 filings through August 2019.  Cumulative filings for utility model applications through August was 1,827,777 versus 1,400,870 filings through August 2019.  Cumulatively, foreigners filed 10.6% of invention patent applications so far this year and 0.3% of utility model applications, an often overlooked intellectual property right.

Cumulatively through August 2020, there were 310,998 invention patents granted, with foreigners receiving 18.2% of the granted patents.  Cumulatively, there were 1,496,186 utility models granted, with foreigners receiving 0.4% of the grants.

6,284 Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) applications were received in August 2020 for a total of 42,395 PCT applications cumulatively for the year. Extrapolating for the year, there may be about 63 thousand PCT applications, exceeding the 13th five-year plan goal of 60,000 PCT applications by 2020.

Additional detailed data is available here (Chinese only).