Almost One Million Patent Applications in China in 2009

China's State Intellectual Property Office (SIPO) reports the following statistics:

• 976,686 patent applications (up 17.9%)
• 877,611 domestic (89.9% and up 22.4%)
• 99,075 from abroad (10.1%, down 10.9%)

• 229,096 invention-patents (up 17.7%)
• 308,861 utility model-patents (up 37.9%)
• 339,654 design-patents (up 13.7%)

• 581,992 granted patents (up 41.2%)
• 501,786 patent granted to domestic filers (86.2%, up 42.4%)
• 80,206 patents granted to foreign filers (13.8%, up 34.6%)

SIPO writes that: "First, patent applications maintained steady and relatively fast growth; Second, structure of domestic patent applications and grants was significantly optimized; Third, the volume of patent grants increased rapidly and patent examination capacity was palpably enhanced." Read here.