China’s National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA) recently released patent grant data for the third quarter of 2024. Year-to-date (YTD), invention patent grants are up by 118,658 versus 2023 Q3, an increase of almost 17%. On the other hand, utility model grants declined from 1,596,992 to 1,510,377, a drop of 86,615 utility model grants. Design patent grants also declined versus 2023 Q3 with 462,123 design patent grants YTD versus 487,977 granted year-on-year.

The decline in utility model grants may be due to the new Patent Examination Guidelines, effective January 20, 2024, which introduced a preliminary examination of utility models for inventiveness that may have contributed to the continuing decline this quarter. In addition, CNIPA continues to crack down on ‘abnormal’ patent applications. 

Chinese patent protection for foreigners remains important with 83,951 inventions patents granted YTD in 2024Q3, representing 10.3% of all grants. This is an increase of almost 7% in absolute numbers from 2023Q3 although a drop from 11.3% of all invention patent granted.

The full dataset, including trademark grants, is available here: 2024Q3 (Chinese only).