STATISTICS

In the first half of 2007, the Sate Intellectual Property Office of China (SIPO) received a total of 268,926 patent applications, up 7.3% from the figure of the same period last year. Among which, 80.5% were filed by Chinese applicants, reached 216,473, up 7.7% from the figure of the same period last year, 19.5% were filed by foreign applicants, reached 52,453, up 5.6% comparing with the same period of last year. In the three kinds of patent application filed, 38.8% were invention applications, up 6.9%, 27.8% were utility models patent applications, down 1.4% and 33.4% were design patent applications, up 16.3%. Further, SIPO granted 167,750 patents in the first half of 2007, up 40.5% comparing with the same period of last year.

In the first half of 2007, administrations for industry and commerce nationwide in China handled 11,800 trademark infringement cases, including 2,745 cases related to foreign trademarks and 33 suspected criminal cases handed over to police or prosecution authorities; among the 11,800 cases, the Shanghai Administration for Industry and Commerce handled 1,104 cases with an estimated value of 101 million yuan, imposed 16,522 yuan in fines, seized and removed 440,000 infringing trademark labels, confiscated and destroyed 24 tons of infringing goods, and transferred 2 cases suspected of criminal violation to police.

Between January to July, 2007, China seized 79.742 million illegal publications in total, 2094 million of which were pornographic publications, 1,627 million of which were illegal newspapers and magazines, 2.991 million of which were smuggled disks, 71.995 million of which were pirated publications.

In the first half of 2007, 10,800 pieces of software were registered by Chinese applicants at the China Copyright Protection Center. The top 10 provinces/autonomous region/municipalities based on number of software copyright registrations are Beijing, Guangdong, Shanghai, Zhejiang, Jiangsu, Fujian, Shandong, Hubei, Sichuan and Tianjin. Beijing paces all provinces with 3,962 registrations, up 7.28% year on year and garnering 34.71% of the total; Guangdong, 1,365, up 9.73%, 11.96% of the total; Shanghai, 1,261, up 13.30%, 11.92% of the total. The ranking shows all the top five provinces/municipalities are better-off coastal ones. Another finding is the positions are fundamentally consistent with the size and weight of the provinces' software industry.