The State Council Information Office of the People’s Republic of China held a press conference  (国新办举行2022年知识产权工作新闻发布会) on January 16, 2023 on intellectual property work in 2022. During the press conference, Hu Wenhui, Deputy Commissioner of the China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA) released statistical data on patent and trademark grants (but not filings). Perhaps indicating a shift to quality from quantity, the number of utility models granted dropped over 10% while invention patent grants increased almost 15%. This contrasts with 2021 data when both invention patent grants and utility model grants were up 31%.

Per Hu Wenhui:

In terms of patents: 798,000 invention patents, 2.804 million utility model patents, and 721,000 design patents were authorized throughout the year. 74,000 PCT international patent applications were accepted. 63,000 patent reexamination cases were concluded, and 7,900 invalidation cases were concluded. Chinese applicants submitted 1,286 applications for international registration of industrial designs through the Hague Agreement on the International Registration of Industrial Designs.

By the end of 2022, the effective number of invention patents in my country will be 4.212 million. Among them, the effective number of domestic (excluding Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan) invention patents is 3.28 million. The number of high-value invention patents per 10,000 people in my country reached 9.4.

In terms of trademarks: 6.177 million trademarks were registered throughout the year.  169,000 trademark opposition cases were completed. 412,000 trials of various trademark review cases were completed. 5,827 applications for Madrid international registration of trademarks submitted by domestic applicants were received.

As of the end of 2022, the number of valid trademark registrations in my country will be 42.672 million.

Geographical indications: 5 geographical indication products were approved throughout the year. 514 registrations of geographical indications as collective trademarks and certification trademarks were approved. 6,373 market entities for the use of special signs for geographical indications were approved.

As of the end of 2022, my country has approved a total of 2,495 geographical indication products, and approved 7,076 registrations of geographical indications as collective marks and certification marks.

In terms of layout design of integrated circuits: 9,106 certificates were issued for layout design of integrated circuits throughout the year.

By the end of 2022, my country has issued a total of 61,000 integrated circuit layout designs.

Hu also stated:

The number of foreign intellectual property rights in China has grown steadily. By the end of 2022, the effective number of foreign invention patents in China will reach 861,000, a year-on-year increase of 4.5%, involving 58,000 foreign companies, an increase of 2,000 from the previous year. There were 2.03 million valid foreign registered trademarks in China, a year-on-year increase of 5.9%.

With respect to protection of foreign intellectual property rights, Zhang Zhicheng, Director of the Intellectual Property Protection Department of the CNIPA stated that “Whether it is the intellectual property rights of Chinese-funded enterprises or foreign-funded enterprises, the Chinese government always treats and protects them equally.”

A recording and transcript of the press conference are available here (Chinese only).