According to the latest statistics, SIPO received a total of 1.633 million applications in 2011, up 33.6% year on year. Among the patent applications received in 2011, there were 526,000 inventions, up 34.5%; 585,000 utility models and 522,000 designs. SIPO also granted a total of 961,000 patents, up 17.9%, among them, 172,000 were inventions, up 27.4%, 408,000 and 381,000 were utility models and designs respectively.

As of the end of 2011, China had housed cumulatively 2.74 million valid patents, up 23.6%. In terms of types of valid patents, there are 697,000 inventions (up 23.4%), 1.121 million utility models and 922,000 designs. Among the valid inventions, 351,000 were owned by domestic users, representing 50.4% of the total. China’s mainland’s invention patents per 10 thousand heads rose to 2.37.

What is noticeable is that in 2011, as a receiving office of the PCT, SIPO received 17,473 PCT applications, up 35.3%.