Recently, the Intellectual Property Application Promotion Department of the National Intellectual Property Administration compiled the Development Status of Patent Agency Industry (2020). By the end of 2020, there were 53,090 patent agent qualification certificates, 23,193 licensed patent agents and 3,253 patent agencies nationwide (excluding Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan). The patent agency industry is showing a development trend of growing scale, improving service capacity, expanding service scope and improving operation system.

With the rapid development of intellectual property in China, the patent agency industry has made great progress, and the number of patent agencies has increased rapidly. By the end of 2020, there were 3,253 patent agencies in China (excluding Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan). From the perspective of geographical distribution, there are great differences in the number of patent agencies in different provinces and cities. Patent agencies are mainly distributed in Beijing, Guangdong, Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Shanghai, there are many patent agencies in the eastern and economically developed coastal areas, and the regional distribution is basically consistent with the number of patent applications in various provinces and cities.

The number of patent attorneys has also seen tremendous growth. By the end of 2020, there were 23,193 licensed patent attorneys in China. By the end of 2020, 3,220 attorneys at law had been recommended in the list published by the All-China Patent Attorneys Association (ACPAA). The majority of the attorneys gathered in Beijing (1623), accounting for 50.40% of the total number; while numbers of attorneys in Guangdong, Shanghai, Zhejiang, Jiangsu and Shandong all have exceeded 100. 　

In recent years, the CNIPA has continuously optimized the industry development environment, strengthened the supervision and self-discipline of patent agency industry, improved the service capacity and quality of the industry, and played the role as a "bridge" in the development of intellectual property, which has promoted the high-quality development of patent agency industry, and comprehensively strengthened intellectual property protection and promoted the transformation of intellectual property work from pursuing quantity to improving quality.