China National Intellectual Property Administration recently released the Patent Statistics Report on the 10th Anniversary of China and the Belt and Road Countries (2013-2022) (hereinafter referred to as the Report). According to the report, from 2013 to 2022, 115 countries submitted patent applications in China, and the total number of patent  applications and authorization in China was 253,000 and 112,000 respectively, with an average annual growth rate of 5.4% and 9.8% respectively. China has published patent applications in 50 co-construction countries and related organizations. The total number of published and authorized patent applications in the co-construction countries is 67,000 and 35,000 respectively, with an average annual growth rate of 25.8% and 23.8% respectively.

The report shows that the patent activities of the co-built countries in China are becoming increasingly active. Over the past decade, the number of patent applications and authorization granted by co-construction countries in China has been on the rise, increasing from 18,000 and 6,000 in 2013 to 29,000 and 14,000 in 2022, with an average annual growth rate of 5.4% and 9.8% respectively, 2.9 and 5.6 percentage points higher than the growth rate of foreign countries in China in the same period.

In terms of patent types, the patent applications of the co-built countries in China are mainly characterized by invention patents, supplemented by appearance design patents and utility model patents. From 2013 to 2022, the co-construction countries submitted 199,000 invention patent applications, 40,000 appearance design patents and 14,000 utility model patents in China, with 10-year average annual growth rates of 5.8 percent, 1.3 percent and 12.0 percent respectively.

According to the report, the number of patent applications published and authorized in China's jointly built countries has maintained a rapid growth. The number of patent applications published in China's jointly built countries increased from 2,000 in 2013 to 15,000 in 2022, with an average annual growth rate of 25.8 percent. The number of patents granted increased from 1,000 in 2013 to 8,000 in 2022, with an average annual growth rate of 23.8 percent.

The report also pointed out that RCEP countries are the main destination countries for Chinese enterprises' patent layout along the Belt and Road. In 2022, with the implementation of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), the world's largest free trade area will be officially implemented, making regional trade and investment more free and convenient. RCEP member countries will become an important focus for China to deepen intellectual property cooperation with other countries. In 2022, a total of 7,736 patent applications made public by Chinese enterprises in RCEP member states, accounting for 65.6 percent of the total number of patent applications made public in the co-establishment countries. Five of the top 10 RCEP countries were Korea (4,548), Vietnam (1,007), Indonesia (754), Singapore (706) and Malaysia (610).