Ratio of applications to grants
To gain a sense of the kind of innovation pipeline that many entities in China are building, it is worth looking closely at the ranking of those entities with the highest percentage of applications to grants. More than 25 have a percentage over 100% – three are over 200%. In other words, they have far more potential patents in the pipeline than their current stockpile of grants.
Representatives from China still dominate, with significant activity in home appliances and software/internet services, while research institutes/universities once again feature prominently.
Among overseas entities, Ford is the lone figure in the top 10 with just under 7,000 applications to go with its 4,408 granted assets. Further down the list there is clear evidence that a who’s who of non-Chinese corporate players are investing significant time and money in bolstering their portfolios. Ford’s automotive rivals Hyundai, Volkswagen and Honda all have more than 3,500 applications under their belts. Elsewhere, semiconductor rivals Intel and Qualcomm each have more than 5,000 applications.
Should those filings ultimately translate into granted patents, then several overseas companies might be moving up to the top 100.
Table 1. Top 20 applications to grants ratio
| Company name | China grants (patents only) | China applications (patents only) | Percentage of overall applications to grants |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wuhan University | 4,369 | 11,229 | 257% |
| Baidu | 5,758 | 11,968 | 207.8% |
| Gree Electric Appliances | 10,113 | 20,822 | 205.9% |
| Alibaba Group | 6,685 | 12,931 | 193.4% |
| Nanjing University of Science and Technology | 3,847 | 6,460 | 167.9% |
| Ford Motor | 4,408 | 6,946 | 157.6% |
| China Metallurgical Group Corporation | 7,028 | 10,801 | 153.7% |
| Haier | 5,290 | 7,936 | 150% |
| Midea | 10,597 | 14,803 | 139.7% |
| Jilin University | 5,632 | 7,673 | 136.2% |
| Tencent | 12,130 | 16,247 | 133.9% |
| Beijing University of Technology | 6,948 | 9,235 | 132.9% |
| Tianjin University | 7,995 | 10,212 | 127.7% |
| BBK Electronics | 10,878 | 13,139 | 120.8% |
| China National Petroleum Corporation | 6,628 | 7,963 | 120.1% |
| Sichuan University | 4,365 | 5,220 | 119.6% |
| Shanghai University | 5,936 | 6,901 | 116.3% |
| State Grid Corporation | 34,758 | 40,015 | 115.1% |
| University of Electronic Science and Technology of China | 6,919 | 7,850 | 113.5% |
| Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics | 4,736 | 5,317 | 112.3% |