China granted 393,000 invention patents in the first half of 2022 with a positive development trend in the digital economy, the China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA) announced on Tuesday.

In the first half of 2022, China authorized 393,000 invention patents and received 33,000 The Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) applications as the development of intellectual property in China is progressing steadily, officials from the CNIPA said at a press conference on Tuesday.

In particular, China’s digital economy and other emerging technologies have boomed in recent years, with increased number of intellectual property patents, said Ge Shu, Director general of the Strategic Planning Department of the CNIPA.

By the end of 2021, the number of effective invention patents in the core sectors of the digital economy in China had reached 977,000, 2.8 times from 2016, accounting for 35.2 percent of the total number of effective patents in China, Ge said.

In the field of Artificial Intelligence (AI) for example, 57,000 Chinese invention patents were authorized by the world’s major intellectual property bureaus in 2021, up 5.1 times from 2016, with an average annual growth of 38.5 percent.

Overseas patent licensing also shows a positive trend.

According to data released by the European Patent Office, the number of invention patent applications from China reached 17,000 in 2021, a new record high, with Huawei topping the list. 

OPPO, ZTE, Baidu, Xiaomi and Tencent were among the top 50 companies in the number of patent applications as China shows a dynamic trend of patent development.