China becomes world's leading patent power: report

BERLIN, June 28 (Xinhua) -- China has become the world's leading patent power, contributing nearly half of all patent applications filed in 2022, according to a new German report released on Friday.

A total of 3.4 million patent applications were approved worldwide in 2022. This is a dramatic increase from 635,000 in 1980, among which only 44 applications had come from China, according to the German Association of Research-Based Pharmaceutical Companies (vfa).