Netac President Complains About Unequal Treatment Overseas Patents

Netac Technology, the first Chinese company that sued a U.S. company (Texas PNY Technologies)  for patent infringement in 2006, and which settled out of court, expects that it has protected its IPR in all important markets by 2015.

Cheng Xiao-hua, president of Netac Technology alleges that it often takes a Chinese firm much longer to obtain a patent overseas than it does for its foreign counterparts. The next quote of Cheng suggests that this is the fault of the overseas patent office that is examining the Chinese patents.
"Cheng said he is expecting a better climate for Chinese companies in applying for patents overseas, and a more "equal examination period and fairer treatment"."

About which patent office his is talking remains unclear. It would be interesting to see this backed up by some statistics. 

Read China Daily's Zhang Shiyi's article here.

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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.

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