IP statistic updates in China for year 2011-CPA Newsletter 2012 Issue 3(English)

IN THIS ISSUE1. Supreme People’s Court of China Publishes “Intellectual Property Protection by ChineseCourts in 2011”2. Statistic Updates for Invention Patent Applications and Grants in China for year 2011Supreme People’s Court of China Publishes “Intellectual Property Protection by Chinese Courts in 2011”The Supreme People’s Court of China (SPC) recently published a report “Intellectual Property Protection by Chinese Courts in 2011”, which gives an overall review and summary of the adjudication of intellectual property cases by the Chinese people’s courts in year 2011.According to the report, the landscape of IP cases in China exhibited the following characteristics in 2011: 1. New filings of civil and criminal cases increased considerably, while administrative cases involvingforeign parties also saw significant increase;2. The number of major complex and difficult cases has increased, where cases involving foreign partieswere proportionally higher;3. The number of patent cases continued to rise, with notable increase in the number of cases involvinghigh tech inventions, economic interest involved in the patent cases escalating, and more Chinese companies suing foreign companies or foreign-invested companies; 4. Disputes involving commercial marks continued to rise;5. The number of copyright cases increased significantly and continually, with the Internet being the mostprominent battlefield.To facilitate a quick grasp of the profile of China’s IP cases, we have created the following table to highlight on some important figures from the report:ProceedingType of IP Cases Cases Newly Accepted Year-on-year Growth Cases Concluded Year-on-year Growth Patent cases 7819 35.16% - - Trademark cases12991 53.56% - - Copyright cases 35185 42.34% - - Technology contract cases557 -16.87% - - Competition cases1137 0.53% - - Others 2193 11.55% - - First instance civil casesTotal5988240.14%5820139.51%Newsletter2012 Issue 3Second instance civil cases Total 7642 17.17% 7659 18.18% Civil reopenedcasesTotal294 164.86%224 105.50%IP-related civil cases adjudicated by SPC305 - 311 - Patent cases654 18.69% - - Trademark cases 1767 -12.78% - - Copyright cases2 0.00% - - Others 10 - - - First instance administrativecases Total2433 -6.06% 2470 3.30% Second instance administrativecasesTotal 1333-1266-IP-related administrative casesadjudicated by SPC 102 - 101 - IP-related administrative casesreviewed by SPC13 - 11 - IP infringement 3134 142.19% 2967 24.53%Production and sale ofsub-standard products774 29.87% 750 - Illegal business operations1747 -15.93%1735 - Others 52 - 52 - First instancecriminal cases Total5707 42.96%55047.70%Preliminary injunction130 98.23% (approval rate) Pre-trial preservationof evidence 186 93.42% (approval rate) Pre-trial provisional measures Pre-trial preservationof property20100% (approval rate)Statistic Updates for Invention Patent Applications and Grants in China for year 2011Following our last issue’s report on some of the statistical data related to patent filing and granting in China in 2011, we will focus in this issue on applications and grants in China for the year relating specifically to invention patents.According to the statistics recently released by the State Intellectual Property Office of China (SIPO), in year 2011, SIPO received a total of 526,412 invention patents applications, a growth of 34.6% year on year. Among the applications, 415,829 (79%) were from home (including HKSAR, Macao SAR and Taiwan) and 110,583 (21%) from overseas.During the year, 172,113 invention patents were granted, a growth of 27.4% year on year. Among the invention patents granted, 112,347 (65.3%) were issued to domestic applicants, and 59,766 (34.7%) to foreign applicants.Domestic enterprises’ applications and grantsIn 2011, invention patent applications filed with SIPO by domestic enterprises amounted to 231,551, representing a significant growth of 49.8% over year 2010’s figure of 154, 581, and 58, 364 invention patents were granted to domestic enterprises, a rise of 45.7% over year 2010’s figure of 40, 049. During the year, there were 164 enterprises who filed over a hundred applications for invention patents.By number of applications, ZTE Corporation was top on the list with 4,685 invention patent applications filed, despite a drop of 17.2% from 5,660 applications in 2010. Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. regained the second place with 3,617 applications filed (a rise of 61.8% year on year), while China Petroleum & Chemical Corporation continued to occupy the third spot.Top 10 Domestic Enterprises (Including from HKSAR, Macao SAR and Taiwan)in Terms of Invention Patent Applications Filed with SIPO in 2011Ranking Name of Enterprise No. of Applications1 ZTE Corporation46852 Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. 36173 China Petroleum & Chemical Corporation 31224 Hongfujin Precision Industry (Shenzhen) Co., Ltd 29085 Ocean's King Lighting Science & Technology Co., Ltd. 12126 Tencent Technology (Shenzhen) Co., Ltd. 8507 AU Optronics Corp. 7588 PetroChina Company Limited 7229 Chery Automobile Co., Ltd. 71810 Semiconductor Manufacturing International (Shanghai)Co., Ltd.635Top 10 Domestic Enterprises (Including from HKSAR, Macao SAR and Taiwan) in Terms of Invention Patents Granted by SIPO in 2011Ranking Name of Enterprise No. of Grants1 ZTE Corporation31782 Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. 27513 Hongfujin Precision Industry (Shenzhen) Co., Ltd 8624 China Petroleum & Chemical Corporation 5875 H3C Technologies Co., Limited 4816 AU Optronics Corp. 4717 BYD Company Limited 4538 Datang Mobile Communications Equipment Co., Ltd. 3679 Semiconductor Manufacturing International (Shanghai)Co., Ltd.36410 Inventec Corporation 320Foreign enterprises’ applications and grantsIn 2011, invention patent applications filed with SIPO by foreign enterprises amounted to 105,409 (a rise of 13.1% year on year), which accounted for 95.3% of the total foreign filings for invention patent applications.By number of applications, Sony Corporation continued to claim the top spot with 2,430 invention patent applications filed, whereas the second and third places were held by Panasonic Corporation (1,802 applications) and Microsoft Corporation (1,625 applications) respectively. It is noteworthy that for the first time, Microsoft Corporation was ranked among the top ten while Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. (1,153 applications) was ousted from the list.Top 10 Foreign Enterprisesin Terms of Invention Patent Applications Filed with SIPO in 2011Ranking Country Name of Enterprise No. of Applications1 Japan Sony Corporation 24302 Japan Panasonic Corporation 18023 US Microsoft Corporation 16254 US Qualcomm Incorporated 13745 US General Electric Company 13116 US GM Global Tech Operations Inc. 12937 Japan Canon Inc. 12898 The Netherlands Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V. 12869 Japan Sharp Corporation 125710 Japan Seiko Epson Corporation 1171Top 10 Foreign Enterprisesin Terms of Invention Patents Granted by SIPO in 2011Ranking Country Name of Enterprise No. of Grants1 Japan Panasonic Corporation 15872 Republic of Korea Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.12763 Japan Sony Corporation11724 Japan Canon Inc.9105 Japan Toyota Motor Corporation8486 Korea LG Electronics Inc. 7887 Japan Sharp Corporation7778 The Netherlands Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V. 6509 US IBM 64410 Japan Seiko Epson Corporation 627All Rights ReservedDisclaimerThe texts, the pictures and other materials contained in this newsletter are intended for information purposes only. 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