The China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA) released 2020 Quarter 1 statistics showing a 9.5% jump in invention patent application filings in March 2020 versus March 2019.  However, filings are still down 3.6% for the year versus Q1 of 2019.  With three quarters remaining, China may still catch up for the year.

Specifically, from January through March 2020, CNIPA received 328,412 invention patent applications and and granted 85,997 invention patents.  There were significantly more utility models (an intellectual property right often ignored by foreign applicants) with CNIPA receiving 563,657 utility model patent applications in Q1 and granting 343,618 utility model patents. CNIPA also received 131,135 design patent applications and granted 147,564 design patents.

CNIPA also received 12,688 international Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) applications, which annualized, would be a 14% decrease versus China’s world-leading 58,990 PCT filings in 2019.

CNIPA also provided trademark and integrated circuit layout design data in the same release.