In 2005, SIPO received 476,264 patent applications of three kinds, representing a 34.6% increase compared to 353,807 applications in 2004. Of the total, 80.5% involved domestic applications, which numbered 383,157. It increased 37.4% compared to 278,943 domestic applications in 2004. Of the total patent applications, 19.5% or 93,107, involved foreign applications. It increased 24.4% compared to 74,864 foreign patent applications in 2004.

Of the patent applications in 2005, there were 173,327 invention patent applications, up 33.2% compared to 130,133 applications in 2004; there were 139,566 utility model applications, an increase of 23.7% compared to 112,825 applications last year; there were 163,371 design applications, a rise of 47.4% over 110,849 applications last year.

Of the invention patent applications in 2005, 53.9% was domestic, or 93,485 applications. It increased 42.1% compared to 65,786 applications in 2004. The rest 46.1%, or 79,842, were foreign applications. It increased 24.1% compared to the 64,347 foreign invention patent applications last year. The top province in terms of the application number was Guangdong.

The patent applications in 2005 were featured by the following facts:

Ⅰ. That the increase rate of patent applications was the highest in the past 18 years. Ⅱ. That the annual increase rate of domestic applications was 13% higher than that of foreign applications. The former was 37.4%, and the latter, 24.4%. Ⅲ. That the increase rate of domestic invention patent applications was higher than that of foreign invention patent applications.

Ⅳ. That the increase rate of domestic service patent applications was 9% higher than that of domestic non-service patent applications, and that of the domestic invention service patent was 19% higher than that of the domestic invention non-service patent applications. Of the domestic invention patent applications in 2000, only half were service patent applications and the other half came from individuals. But in 2005, invention service patent applications accounted for 67% of the total. Ⅴ. That most of the domestic service patent applications were filed by enterprises. The domestic service patent applications filed by enterprises, universities, research institutions and ministries and other organizations accounted for 80.2%, 12.5%, 6.1% and 1.1%, respectively.

The above statistics on patent applications in 2005 showed that the social patent awareness in China has been distinctively improved, the research level is gradually improving and the enterprises attach importance to protecting their IP according to law. On the other hand, the increased number of foreign patent applications shows that the Chinese market is very appealing to multinational companies as the Chinese market economic system improves.

In 2005, 214,003 patents were granted by SIPO,up 12.5%. Of them, 171,619 were domestic patents, an increase of 13.4%. Of the granted patents, invention, utility models and industrial designs accounted for 25%, 37% and 38%, respectively.