CNIPA Publishes Statistical Analysis Report on Patents in Core Industries of Digital Economy 2025

The China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA) recently published the "Statistical Analysis Report on Patents in the Core Industries of the Digital Economy 2025", which analyses invention patent grant and validity in core industries of the digital economy in China and across the world, and provides development trends thereof from 2016 to 2024.

According to the Statistical Classification of Digital Economy and its Core Industries (2021) issued by National Bureau of Statistics of China, "core industries of the digital economy" refer to economic activities that provide digital technologies, products, services, infrastructure, and solutions for the digital development of industries, as well as that rely entirely on digital technologies and data elements, and such core industries encompass four main categories, namely, digital product manufacturing, digital product services, digital technology application, and digital element-driven industries.

In 2024, the global number of grants to invention patents in core industries of the digital economy reached 1.036 million, a year-on-year increase of 16.7%, accounting for 47.9% of global invention patent grants of the year, and up 9.3 % compared to 2016.

In China, the number of grants to invention patents in core industries of the digital economy amounted to 500,000 in 2024, seeing an increase of 23.1% year-on-year, accounting for 47.8% of China's total invention patent grants of the year, and up 17.3% compared to 2016. As of the end of 2024, the number of valid invention patents in digital economy core industries in China was 2.333 million, accounting for 41% of total valid invention patents in China. Of these valid invention patents, 1.953 million, or 41.1%, were domestic patents.

As of the end of 2024, 95 countries and regions held 380,000 valid invention patents in digital economy core industries in China, accounting for 40.8% of the total valid foreign invention patents in the country. The top 10 countries of origin of these foreign invention patents were Japan (120,000 patents), the US (111,000), South Korea (48,000), Germany (27,000), the Cayman Islands (12,000), the Netherlands (9,075), France (8,038), Singapore (6,525), Sweden (6,369), and Switzerland (6,216).