In 2012, China's State Intellectual Property Office accepted 653,000 invention patent applications, with a year-on-year growth of 24.0%, and granted 217,000 invention patents, with a year-on-year growth of 26.1%. Both maintained a momentum of rapid growth.

The statistics shows that, in 2012, China handled 2,051,000 cases of three kinds of patent applications, with a year-on-year increase of 26%; and 1,255,000 patent were granted, with a year-on-year growth of 31%. Among them, 535,000 applications were for domestic invention patents, accounting for 81.9% of the total applications, increasing by 28.7%; 118,000 applications for foreign invention patents, accounting for 18.1% of the total, increasing by 6.2%. Among the domestic applications, 428,000 were employee applications, accounting for 80.0%, with a year-on-year growth of 32.1%; and among the domestic employee invention patent applications, 316,000 were enterprise applications, accounting for 73.8%, with a year-on-year growth of 36.6%. In 2012, 144,000 cases were granted for domestic invention patents, accounting for 66.4% of the total number of granted invention, up 28.0%; and 73,000 cases for foreign invention patents, accounting for 33.6% of the total, up 22.6%. In 2012, China handled 20,000 international patent applications filed through the Patent Cooperation Treaty "(PCT), with a year-on-year growth of 14%.