The European Patent Office recently issued a report that European Patent Office received 265,000 patent applications in 2013 which made an increase of 2.8% over 2012 and set a record high. Compared with 2012, Chinese patent applications increased by 16.2% and the increase topped the list. European Patent Office granted a total of 66,700 European patents in 2013, which made an increase of 1.6% compared with 2012 and also a record high. Chinese companies were awarded a total of 941 patents which made an increase of 19% compared with 2012.

The performance of Chinese enterprises in the European patent application was compelling. The report notes that Chinese companies submitted a total of 22,292 European patent applications in 2013, the number of applications ranked fourth, accounting for 8.4% of all of the number of patent applications of European Patent Office. Over the past 10 years, China has the fastest growth in the number of patent applications and the average annual growth rate reached to 31.6%. In the field of digital communications technology, about 15% of patent applications came from Chinese companies.