China leads the world with 4.2 million valid registered patents in 2022

China had registered 4.212 million valid patents as of the end of 2022, making it the first country to pass the threshold of 3 million. The number manifests that the nation has been ramping up efforts to become a global innovational power.

Of the patents there are 1.324 million high-value patents, up 24.2 percent year-on-year, data from the National Intellectual Property Administration (NIPA) showed on Monday.

The number of high-value patents per 10,000 people, a major indicator of economic and social development, has reached 9.4 in 2022, compared to 6.3 at the end of the 13th Five-Year Plan period (2016-2020).

The figures show that the quality of intellectual property creation in China is improving and the patent structure is continuously optimized, officials said.

Zhao Zhanling, a research fellow at the Center for IPR Studies at China University of Political Science and Law, told the Global Times on Monday that China attaches great importance to patent creation and IPR protection over the past years as China's economy has expanded rapidly.

"We can see that behind the surging patents, technology enterprises are mushrooming in China, enhancing the nation's international status as an innovational power," Zhao said.

Hu Wenhui, deputy head of the National Intellectual Property Administration, said on Monday that the advantages of high-value patents for enterprises have become more evident, and the patent portfolios of strategic emerging industries are strengthening.

As of the end of 2022, the number of high-value invention patents held by domestic enterprises in China reached 968,000, up 28.7 percent year-on-year. Among high-value patents, those held by strategic emerging industries, such as new-energy vehicles, digital creativity and advanced equipment manufacturing, reached 952,000, up 18.7 percent year-on-year.

There is still a room for improvement compared with the developed economies, Ge Shu, an official at the NIPA, noted.

The added value of China's patent-intensive industries reached 14.3 trillion yuan ($2.09 trillion) in 2021, up 17.9 percent year-on-year. The sector accounted for 12.4 percent of the nation's GDP, while employing 6.5 percent of the work force.

The added value of patent-intensive industries in the US accounts for 24 percent of its GDP and 13 percent of the employment. 

It is expected that by 2025, the added value of China's patent-intensive industries will account for more than 13 percent of the country's GDP.