The Chinese mainland was the most popular registration destination for trademark applicants from all major countries in the Asia-Pacific region in 2019, according to a recently released report.

Chinese companies have gained increasing brand awareness and growing capacities to build their own trademarks and brands. 

Liu Yu, executive vice-president and managing director of Asia-Pacific of Clarivate

Trademark registration in the Chinese mainland has seen consecutive growth since 2010, helping the Asia-Pacific region increase its influence in terms of global intellectual property activity, according to the IP Asia 2020 report released by Clarivate, a global company in providing analytics and insights. The report analyzes IP activities in Asia in the past decade.

In 2019, 70 percent of all the trademark applications filed globally were destined for the Chinese mainland, the report showed.

This figure signals the Chinese market is increasingly an important consumption market with huge potential, said Liu Yu, executive vice-president and managing director of Asia-Pacific of Clarivate.

"Chinese companies have gained increasing brand awareness and growing capacities to build their own trademarks and brands," Liu said.

As well as exploring IP developments in Asia, the report also highlights the patent landscape in China.

Invention patents and utility models published in the Chinese mainland surged 440 percent between 2010-18.

In contrast, patent volumes in some of the world's largest economies, such as the United States and Japan, remained almost constant or slightly declined, the report said.

"The surge in patent filings over the years in the Chinese mainland was boosted by several factors, including national innovation strategies, growing spending on research and development and incentive policies at both the central and local government levels," the report said.

Data from the National Bureau of Statistics showed that by 2019, the Chinese mainland's R&D spending had consistently been above 2 percent of its GDP for the past five years.

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China is a country with a huge number of patents, Liu said, adding that the authorities and companies in the country have paid more attention to patent quality and operation in a bid to promote the development of an IP powerhouse.

Having engaged in the IP industry for over 20 years, Liu is an expert in the IP information service segment for academic institutions, high-tech companies and financial institutions.

Promoting the fundamental research and the commercialization of research findings through the joint efforts of enterprises, universities and research institutes is the consensus among governments around the world, Liu said.

Compared with Europe and the US, the development of enterprises, universities and research institutes in Asian countries tend to be more driven by governments, as financing and venture capital institutions have yet to grow full-fledged, he added.

"Universities must find a good market to realize the commercialization of their innovations. Some commercialization of theoretical research takes a long period, which requires vision and foresight of countries and companies," Liu said.

"As an observer in the innovation field, we learn about the global innovation trends through data."

Liu noted the life cycle of innovation includes the process of discovery, commercialization and IP protection. There are three elements in the cycle－talents, capital and information.

"If we can accelerate the flow of information, we can accelerate the flow of capital investment and human resources, and thus promote innovation," Liu said.

China ranks among the world's highest by number of patents and its development progress, said Wang Li, general manager of Clarivate's IP business in China.

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"The most effective way to improve China's IP environment is to help Chinese companies increase their technologies and innovation capabilities," he said. "Chinese companies are more willing to file patents, and that also urges us to protect IP."

Founded in 2016, Clarivate is a London-based company that focuses on accelerating the pace of innovation. It provides global innovators with business insights and analytics including scientific and academic research, patents, trademarks and industry standards.