The Report on National Intellectual Property Agency Industry Development Status (2022) ((2022)) was made available by China’s National Intellectual Property Administration on May 11, 2023. 645 brand-new patent offices were established in China in 2022, and five foreign patent offices received approval to open resident representative offices. Toward the finish of 2022, there were 4,520 patent organizations (barring Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan), 63,311 patent lawyers, 31,347 rehearsing patent lawyers, and 4,405 prosecution agents. The quantity of candidates for the 2022 patent lawyer capability assessment was 51,511 and the quantity of passers was 6,775 (a 13.5% pass rate versus 46.3% in the U.S.).

The following are a few highlights of the Report:

Patent Offices
As of now, the quantity of public patent organizations is as yet developing quickly. The number of patent agencies will grow at a rate of more than 20% per year from 2016 to 2021. The number of patent agencies’ growth slowed down in 2022, but it remained relatively high. Toward the finish of 2022, the complete number of patent organizations arrived at 4,520, a year-on-year increment of 586, with a yearly development pace of almost 15%.
Trademark Agencies There will be 71,466 trademark agencies in the United States by the end of 2022. 64 trademark agencies were dissolved and 7,569 new trademark agencies were registered in 2022. In any case, after a re-enrollment process in 2023 Q1, there are just 18,096 enlisted brand name offices cross country including 16,921 that passed the survey and 1,175 new organizations. Patent Attorneys Over the past ten years, the number of qualified patent attorneys in China has shown a rapid growth trend. All registered trademark agencies were required to sign a letter of commitment to solemnly promise not to commit bribery or illegal acts. From 2013 to 2015, the annual growth rate exceeded 20%; By the end of 2016, there were more than 30,000 patent attorneys; The annual number of patent attorneys had increased by more than 5,000 between 2017 and 2020; toward the finish of 2021, a greater number of than 60,000 individuals had gotten patent lawyer capabilities. By the end of 2022, 63,311 people will have received certifications as patent attorneys, up 254% from 2013.

In the beyond a decade, the quantity of rehearsing patent lawyers in China has likewise shown a pattern of fast development. There were more than 10,000 practicing patent attorneys in 2014; There were 20,192 practicing patent attorneys in 2019—an increase of more than 20,000 in 2022, the quantity of rehearsing patent lawyers arrived at 31,347, an increment of 16.8% north of 2021.

Exam for Patent Attorneys Every year, more and more people apply to take the exam to become a patent attorney. There have been two high points in the number of applicants for the patent attorney qualification examination over the past ten years: The first was in 2013 and 2014, growing at a rate of more than 20% per year; the second was in 2018, and the quantity of candidates surpassed 39,000. In 2022, the quantity of candidates for the patent lawyer capability assessment hit another high, arriving at 51,511, a year-on-year increment of 8.3%. This contrasts with the USPTO patent bar exam, which saw a 14.2% decrease from 2021 to 2022, with only 1768 exams.

In 2022, the “Blue Sky” special rectification campaign for the intellectual property agency industry was further promoted by CNIPA, which took action against illegal agency behavior by interviewing 1,489 patent agencies, ordering the rectification of 923 cases, filing 332 cases, and issuing administrative penalties in 238 cases.

Source – natlawreview