Thomson Reuters has issued two research reports assessing innovation in China. The first, Invented in China assesses total patent volumes and highlights growing areas of innovation activity in China.  Special Report: Trademarks in China tracks trends in trademark activity in China over the last 20 years and analyzes trademark activities of the world’s leading brands.

The findings are astounding:

Patent Filings: According to estimates, China now leads the world in patent application filings. By the year 2015, China will publish about 393,000 applications annually.  In contrast, US companies (and individuals) now account for about 240,000 patent applications per year.  However, the US Patent & Trademark Office processes about 500,000 applications per year, some of which are filed by foreign entities.

Trademark Applications: Despite being seen as a country that does not respect branding and where counterfeiting is still widespread, since the year 2000, trademark filings have increased 450%.

However, the research also shows that the most innovative companies in the world are located in the United States, Europe, and Japan. Furthermore, Chinese companies have been slow to expand globally — only 5.6 percent of Chinese inventions are protected by international filings. From what I see, this is going to change in the next few years.