Domestic Patent Applications

The number of domestic patent applications filed in 2003 was the highest in the past eight years, surpassing those filed from abroad. After China joined the Patent Cooperation Treaty in 1994, the number of foreign invention patent applications sharply increased compared to domestic applications. In 2003, the number of domestic applications totaled 57,000 -- 8,000 more than foreign applications. Among them, the number of high-tech patent applications approached that of utility model patent applications to reach 100,000 -- an increase of 31.3 percent.