Analysis of Patents Awarded by Universities in China

Abstract

China Patent Award is the highest award for patents provided by the Chinese government, and the award-winning volume represents one of the essential symbols for evaluating the technological innovation capability and the knowledge transformation of technological inventions in universities. This paper makes a macro-analysis of the changes in Chinese universities awarded with China Patent Awards. We conducted a multi-dimensional analysis of the universities-awarded patents from the 1st to the 22nd China Patent Awards, including the distribution of quantity, geographical composition, attribute composition of awarded universities, patent legal status, and patent operation. The results show that the number of awarded patents of universities is accumulating; Beijing is the city with the highest number of awarded universities; Tsinghua University is the most awarded university; the number of First-Class Universities and National Intellectual Property Demonstration Colleges are more among the awarded universities, and the field of Part C (chemistry, metallurgy) is the most awarded IPC category. Universities are one of the main forces of China’s scientific and technological innovation and play a leading and demonstration role in basic research and high-tech fields. The quantity and quality of universities’ patents are regarding their own innovation capability and domestic and foreign core competition ability. It also reflects the active participation of universities in the national scientific and technological innovation system, thus influencing the direction of China’s intellectual property strategy deployment and development.