According to State Administration for Market Supervision (SAMS), during the period from January to September this year, 5.507 million trademark applications were filed, an increase of 39.8%; the trademark registration turnaround time was shortened to less than 7 months; 4,395 Madrid international trademark registration applications were filed from China; the number of valid registered trademarks was 17.981 million by the end of September.

During the same period, 1.191 million invention patent applications were filed, up 7.3% and 328,000 patents granted. The average examination period for invention patent remained consistently at 22 months. The number of PCT international patent applications accepted was 38,000, an increase of 8.4%. By the end of September, the number of invention patents in China reached 1.607 million, an increase of 20.1%. (Source: www.stcn.com )