China on a mission to turn ‘junk’ patents into treasure

This is the first in a series of reports on Chinese intellectual property as Beijing seeks to make IP protection a central part of its new development strategy.

Chinese universities have been rising in global rankings for patent filings, according to data published by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) in March. Last year, they made up nine of the top 20 educational institutes on the WIPO’s list, compared with only three in 2017, extending China’s lead over the US in patent filings.