World Intellectual Property Organization recently published 2016 Report on Global Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) international patent application. The report shows that PCT international patent applications from China reached 43,100, surging 45% over the previous year, ranking third behind the United States (56,000) and Japan (45,000).

From the number of applications point of view, the distance between China and Japan is already very close, while China maintained a higher growth rate. The World Intellectual Property Organization predicts that China will surpass Japan this year, surpassing the United States in two years, ranking first in the world.

On March 12, 2017, Chinese Supreme People’s Court Chief Justice Zhou Qiang pointed out in his annual report to National People’s Congress that in 2016, the Supreme People’s Court issued judicial interpretation on trials of patent disputes and improved the protection of intellectual property rights rules. The “Jordan” trademark case highlighted China’s judicial protection of intellectual property rights. Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou Intellectual Property Courts explored the application of punitive damages, made efforts to solve the low cost of infringement, and the high cost of copyright protection. Nanjing, Suzhou, Wuhan, Chengdu set up intellectual property tribunals that have cross-regional centralized jurisdiction of intellectual property cases. The Chinese courts at all levels concluded 14.7 million intellectual property rights related cases in the first instance.