Why Do Chinese Inventors Apply to USPTO?

摘要

Recently patent applications from Chinese inventors for protection at the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) increase rapidly, although from a quite low base. During 2002～2006, China ranks the No. 1 in the terms of the growth rate of the USPTO granted patents. This paper uses patent amounts to explore the phenomenon of Chinese inventors' growing interest to apply to the USPTO. We draw on a comprehensive database consisting of all granted utility patents with China as residence of the first-inventor from 1988 until 2007. Data show the most of Chinese US utility patents are owned by foreign assignees and in the sectors of Electricity( sector H) and Physics (sector G), foreign assignees have much more Chinese US patents than Chinese assignees. Data also show 4 regions, Beijing, Guangdong, Jiangsu and Shanghai, comprise 74% of total patent grants. Both of the facts are concordant with the trend of FDI and related foreign-invested R&D activities. We also observe that the ratio of the US utility patents owned by Chinese institutions is undergoing a steady growth. We conclude the growth of Chinese US patents mainly results from foreign-invested R&D activities in China.