China’s National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA) has recently released full year statistics for 2025. Overall grants (including invention, utility model and design patents) were down 16.18% compared to 2024. Invention patent grants were down 7%, utility model patent grants were down 27.28% and design patent grants were up 3.56%. While no official reason was given for the drop in grants, the decrease may be related to the continued crackdown on “irregular” patent applications, which made up roughly 10% of all 2025 filings, and the introduction of an examination system for utility model applications. Notably, utility model patent grants have been declining for several years now with a 4% drop in 2024 and a 25% drop in 2023.

Table: Chinese Patent Grants 2025 vs. 2024

The full dataset is available here (Chinese only). 2025 filing statistics will most likely be released in April 2026.