On January 23, 2026, China’s National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA) held a press conference summarizing their intellectual property work in 2025. Of note, a total of about 972,000 invention patents, about 1,461,000 utility model patents, and about 666,000 design patents were granted in 2025. This represents a roughly 7% drop in invention patent grants from 2024 – a reversal from the 13.5% increase in 2024 year-on-year (YoY). Utility patent grants were down 27% continuing their downward trend. Design patent grants had a small increase. More detailed statistics should be released within a week most likely.
The decrease in patent grants may be related to the continued crackdown on “irregular” patent applications, which made up roughly 10% of all 2025 filings, and the introduction of an examination system for utility model applications.
Excerpts follow. A full transcript is available here (Chinese only).
Guo Wen, Director of the Intellectual Property Protection Department of the CNIPA:
As Chinese enterprises participate more actively in global trade, international intellectual property disputes have become a prominent issue for them. In response to the pain points of some domestic enterprises, such as information asymmetry and weak response capabilities, our office, together with relevant departments, has strengthened international intellectual property protection efforts, assisting enterprises in carrying out overseas rights protection, and has achieved positive progress.
First, the rule of law has reached a new level. The “Regulations of the State Council on the Handling of Foreign-related Intellectual Property Disputes” have officially come into effect. This is my country’s first comprehensive administrative regulation specifically addressing the handling of foreign-related intellectual property disputes, providing a clear legal path for enterprises to safeguard their rights and interests in a complex international environment.
Second, our rights protection guidance has achieved broad coverage. By the end of 2025, we had established 99 overseas intellectual property dispute response guidance platforms in 30 provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities) across China, 6 industry-specific platforms targeting key sectors such as automobiles and photovoltaics, and overseas platforms in 11 countries, building a two-way “domestic + overseas” rights protection guidance network. Simultaneously, we continued to optimize our expert database, with nearly 2,000 guidance experts participating in related work. Throughout 2025, we provided guidance and consulting services to enterprises more than 4,800 times regarding cross-border e-commerce intellectual property disputes and overseas trademark squatting, recovering losses of 2.75 billion yuan.
Third, information services are more precise. The National Overseas Intellectual Property Information Service Platform has been continuously optimized and upgraded, and has included 1,470 laws, regulations and international treaties from 189 countries and regions around the world. A series of country-specific guides and rights protection guidelines have been compiled and issued, enabling “one-stop” access.
Fourth, new progress has been made in talent support. Efforts have been continuously strengthened to train lawyers specializing in international intellectual property, with joint training programs conducted with the Ministry of Justice. International Intellectual Property Colleges have been jointly established with Tsinghua University and Peking University to further cultivate high-level talent in international intellectual property.
This year, we will further strengthen the protection of intellectual property rights involving foreign entities, improve the cross-departmental coordination mechanism, and enhance the dispute resolution guidance network. We will provide more timely risk warnings and more precise guidance for key industries and cross-border e-commerce, select more experts with international legal perspectives and practical experience, and improve our ability to resolve complex disputes involving standard-essential patents and trade secrets, thus safeguarding the international expansion of Chinese enterprises.
Rui Wenbiao, Deputy Director of the CNIPA:
Patent quality is an important indicator of innovation level, and it is the lifeline, main theme, and key task for the healthy development of the patent industry. In recent years, we have adhered to the principles of quality first and efficiency priority, and have taken a series of measures in policy optimization, examination practice, and industry governance. We have worked together from the application end, the agency end, and the examination end to promote the steady improvement of patent quality and enhance the quality and efficiency of the entire chain.
Focusing on optimizing policy guidance, the “14th Five-Year Plan” indicator has adjusted “the number of invention patents per 10,000 people” to “the number of high-value invention patents per 10,000 people,” emphasizing the practical value and technological content of patents. The “15th Five-Year Plan” will further optimize this indicator, highlighting quality and playing a more guiding role. Efforts are being made to promote the complete elimination of financial subsidies for the patent application and authorization stages by local governments and departments, resolutely correcting the tendency to prioritize quantity. Nine departments jointly issued a document explicitly requiring that the number of patent applications and authorizations should not be directly used as the main criteria for talent evaluation, institutional assessment, project review, enterprise certification, professional title evaluation, and university evaluation, emphasizing the transformation value and industrialization prospects. Universities and research institutions are being guided to establish a pre-patent application evaluation system, ensuring “evaluation before application,” and proactively intercepting low-quality patent applications. A precise service guarantee list system for patent applications has been established to provide high-quality agency services for patent applications.
Focusing on improving the quality of patent examination, we have intensified our efforts to combat patent applications that violate the principle of good faith, a key task for the Party Committee of the State Intellectual Property Office for many consecutive years. We have strictly controlled the patent examination and authorization process, strengthened the evaluation of the inventiveness of invention patents, and conducted examinations to assess the obvious inventiveness of utility model patents and the obvious differences between design patents, effectively improving the quality of authorization. The accuracy rate of invention patent examination case closure exceeds 95%. We have revised the “Patent Examination Guidelines” in line with the times, strictly enforcing authorization standards. We have launched an intelligent patent examination system, improving the quality of patent examination through technological innovation.
Regarding strict industry regulation, we have been carrying out the “Blue Sky” campaign for many consecutive years, continuously strengthening the comprehensive governance of the intellectual property agency industry. Currently, we are also working with the Ministry of Public Security and the State Administration for Market Regulation to conduct a special campaign to rectify the intellectual property agency industry, precisely cracking down on serious illegal and irregular agency activities, comprehensively cleaning up personnel suspected of “certificate lending,” increasing the governance of platform enterprises, strictly controlling the entry of the agency industry, strengthening self-discipline in the agency industry, and promoting the high-quality development of the agency industry.
Focusing on promoting patent commercialization and application, we will further implement special actions for patent commercialization and application, continuously revitalize existing patents and optimize new ones, and promote the transfer and commercialization of more patents with industrialization prospects. We will support key enterprises in the industrial chain to strengthen collaborative innovation with universities and research institutions, and cultivate more high-quality original patents and patent portfolios.
Through years of effort, the value of Chinese patents has been continuously improving. Looking at core indicators, my country’s “high-value invention patents per 10,000 people” reached 16, exceeding the target set in the 14th Five-Year Plan. A large number of high-value core patents are held in fields such as “new three elements” (new energy, new pharmaceuticals, and new industrial products), artificial intelligence, and biomedicine. From an international perspective, my country’s ranking in the World Intellectual Property Organization’s “Global Innovation Index 2025” report has risen to 10th, an improvement of 25 places since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, making it one of the fastest-improving countries in the world. Its achievements in high-quality development have been highly praised by the international community.
