China invention patent applications exceeded one million for the first time in 2015 (Jan-2016)
According to the statistics of SIPO, the accepting number of the invention patent applications kept a steady increase with year-on-year growth of 18.7%, totaling 1.102 million, ranking No. 1 throughout the world for 5 consecutive years, wherein the invention patent applications accounted for 39.4% of the total patent applications (including inventions, utility models and designs). A total of three hundred and fifty-nine thousand invention patent applications were granted, the period of examination as to substance for invention was shortened to about 22 months, and the settlement period of utility models or designs was maintained within three months.
In addition, SIPO accepted thirty-one thousand international patent applications in total through the PCT channel with a year-on-year growth of 16.7%.
(URL: http://www.sipo.gov.cn/twzb/2015ndzygztjsj/)