On January 16, the State Council Information Office held a press conference to introduce the progress of intellectual property work in 2023. Hu Wenhui, Deputy Director of the China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA), introduced that as of the end of 2023, the volume of valid invention patents in China stood at 4.991 million, of which 4.015 million were domestic valid invention patents (excluding Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan), and the number of high-value invention patents per 10,000 population reached 11.8; as of the end of 2023, the volume of valid trademark registrations in China was 46.146 million, a total of 2,508 geographical indication products had been approved, and 72,000 integrated circuit layout designs had been issued.

Hu Wenhui stated that in 2023, China's intellectual property ownership continued to increase, and enterprise innovation activities remained active. As of the end of 2023, 427,000 domestic enterprises held valid invention patents, an increase of 72,000 over the previous year, holding 2.909 million valid invention patents; the annual registered amount of patent and trademark pledge financing increased by 75.4% year on year, with 42,000 pledge registration projects, up 49.2% year on year, and the inclusive strength of pledge financing continued to grow.

In recent years, the scale of China's patent-intensive industries has grown steadily. In 2022, the value added of these industries exceeded 15 trillion yuan for the first time, accounting for 12.7% of GDP, with an average annual growth rate of 9.4% over the past five years. Ge Shu, Deputy Director of the Patent Office of CNIPA and Director of the Strategic Planning Department, introduced that patent-intensive industries refer to industrial clusters whose invention patent intensity and scale meet prescribed standards, which rely on intellectual property to participate in market competition and conform to the orientation of innovative development, and are key areas for laying out new tracks and fostering new drivers of growth.

"China's patent-intensive industries, with less than 7% of the whole society's employed persons, have gathered nearly 50% of the country's enterprise R&D funding investment, produced about 70% of domestic invention patents, and contributed 1/8 of the country's GDP," Ge Shu said. CNIPA will take more effective measures to intensify the cultivation of patent-intensive industries and better support high-quality economic development.

In recent years, China's intellectual property protection system has been accelerated and continuously improved. In 2023, 8 new intellectual property protection centers and 7 rapid rights protection centers were approved for construction nationwide, bringing the total number of coordinated protection institutions to 112. Guo Wen, Director of the Intellectual Property Protection Department of CNIPA, introduced that at present, about 150,000 enterprises and institutions have filed records with intellectual property protection centers and rapid rights protection centers, including more than 5,700 specialized, refined, distinctive and innovative "little giant" enterprises. Across the country, the intellectual property system guides and manages more than 1,900 mediation organizations, and there are more than 2,600 intellectual property rights protection assistance institutions nationwide.

Since the 14th Five-Year Plan, China has accelerated the building of an intellectual property powerhouse, and patent creation has achieved both quantitative and qualitative improvement. Data show that as of the end of 2023, the volume of domestic high-value invention patents reached 1.665 million, up 25.7% year on year, and the number of high-value invention patents per 10,000 population increased by 5.5 over the end of the 13th Five-Year Plan period.

Ge Shu said that as of the end of 2023, among the domestic high-value invention patents, 1.166 million valid invention patents belonged to strategic emerging industries, up 22.5% year on year, accounting for 70%, providing strong support for the innovative development of key industries; 602,000 domestic valid invention patents had been maintained for more than 10 years, up 35.4% year on year and 2.4 times the level at the end of the 13th Five-Year Plan period, with high-value invention patents maintained for an average of 8.4 years, indicating that innovation entities' willingness to maintain patent validity continued to strengthen; among domestic high-value invention patents, 104,000 valid invention patents achieved relatively high pledge financing amounts, up 37.4% year on year, further giving play to the role of intellectual property in empowering enterprises.

In 2023, CNIPA issued the Provisions on the Registration and Administration of Collective Marks and Certification Marks. Zhang Peng, Director of the Legal Affairs Department of CNIPA, introduced that the Provisions will, by clarifying trademark registration and use requirements, strengthening registrants' management responsibilities, and refining the circumstances of legitimate use, resolve problems reflected in trademark rights protection cases in recent years, such as unclear boundaries of rights and unclear rights and obligations of registrants and users, give full play to the role of collective marks and certification marks in promoting the development of local specialty economies and enhancing the development benefits of cluster industries, and maintain a standardized and orderly trademark registration order and a fair-competition market environment.

"In 2024, CNIPA will take source protection of intellectual property as the foundation, transformation and application as the driver, and institutional reform as an opportunity to comprehensively strengthen the whole chain of intellectual property creation, application, protection, management and services, intensify international cooperation in intellectual property protection, strive to open up new prospects for the development of intellectual property undertakings, and better serve the building of a great modern socialist country," Hu Wenhui said.