The State Intellectual Property Office of China recently released the 10-Year Patent Statistics Report (2013-2022) on China and the Belt and Road Countries and Related Organizations (hereinafter referred to as “Belt and Road Countries”) on the occasion of the 10th anniversary of the Belt and Road Initiative. The report systematically introduces the patent layout status and significant features of China and the Belt and Road Countries in the past decade, and objectively reflects the main progress and vigorous vitality of the international cooperation on intellectual property between China and the Belt and Road Countries.

The report shows that in the past decade, Chinese applicants have applied for patents in 50 Belt and Road Countries, with a cumulative patent application publication volume of 67,000, an average annual growth rate of 25.8%, a cumulative patent authorization volume of 35,000, and an average annual growth rate of 23.8%. A total of 115 Belt and Road Countries have submitted patent applications in China, with patent application volumes and authorization volumes of 253,000 and 112,000 respectively, an average annual growth rate of 5.4% and 9.8%, which are 2.9 and 5.6 percentage points higher than the overall growth rates of foreign patent applications and authorizations in China during the same period.

A total of 6,882 Chinese enterprises have carried out patent application activities in the Belt and Road Countries, among which, the top five enterprises with patent application publication volumes exceeding 2,000 are Huawei (6,586), Xiaomi (2,807), Alibaba (2,557), ZTE (2,243) and Tencent (2,089).

Among the patent applications published by China in the Belt and Road Countries, digital communication (12,000) and computer technology (9,000) are the fields with the largest proportion of digital technology, accounting for 31.3% of the total. Among the foreign patent applications in China, semiconductors (16,000), computer technology (15,000) and digital communication (13,000) are the fields with more applications of digital technology, accounting for 27.3% of the total.

China has a cumulative green low-carbon technology invention patent application publication volume of 3,549 in the Belt and Road Countries, with an average annual growth rate of 16.7%. The patent authorization volume is 1,884, with an average annual growth rate of 15.8%. Since 2020, the green low-carbon technology invention patent application publication volume has shown an accelerated growth, with an average annual growth rate of 37.3% in the past three years.