Patent Examination at the State Intellectual Property Office in China

Forthcoming, Research Policy

ESMT Working Paper No. 11-06

44 Pages Posted: 2 Jun 2011 Last revised: 15 Jun 2014

See all articles by Johannes Liegsalz

Johannes Liegsalz

affiliation not provided to SSRN

Stefan Wagner

ESMT European School of Management and Technology

Date Written: May 31, 2011

Abstract

The number of patent applications filed at the Chinese State Intellectual Property Office SIPO grew tremendously over the last decades and the SIPO has become the world’s third largest patent office by 2009. In this paper, we provide an overview of the institutional background of patent examination in China. Moreover, we empirically analyze the determinants of the grant lags applicants have to expect at the SIPO. The multivariate duration analysis is based on the population of 443,533 patent applications filed at the SIPO between 1990 and 2002. The average grant lag is 4.71 years with considerable variation across 30 different technology areas. Interestingly, we find that Chinese applicants are able to achieve faster patent grants than their non-Chinese counterparts (even after controlling for various other determinants of grant lags). This might be an indication of a differential treatment of Chinese applicants which would be in violation of Art. 3 (National Treatment) and Art. 4 (Most-favored Nation Treatment) of TRIPS that has been signed by China in 2001.

Keywords: patent system, patent examination, State Intellectual Property Office China, duration analysis

Suggested Citation

Liegsalz, Johannes and Wagner, Stefan, Patent Examination at the State Intellectual Property Office in China (May 31, 2011). Forthcoming, Research Policy, ESMT Working Paper No. 11-06, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1856537 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1856537

Johannes Liegsalz

affiliation not provided to SSRN ( email )

Stefan Wagner (Contact Author)

ESMT European School of Management and Technology ( email )

Schlossplatz 1
10117 Berlin
Germany

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