Patent applications for STAR-listed firms show rapid increase

Li Yi / SHINE

The average patent application volume for STAR-listed firms increased by 16.5 percent last year, with Shanghai-based firms growing the fastest, an industry report said on Tuesday.

The Shanghai STAR market is a financing platform for high-tech development, which regards innovation results such as patents as a company's assets for initial public offering issuance.

By the end of 2022, 501 firms were listed in the STAR Market, with a total patent application volume of 182,000, or 365 for each on average, a 16.5 percent growth from a year ago. Biomedicine shows the greatest number of new patents, most likely because of the pandemic, according to PatSnap, a third-party patent research firm.

The overall patent capacity of STAR-listed firms grew significantly, much higher than the listed firms in the other domestic markets in Beijing and Shenzhen.

The average number of patent applications, effective patents and authorized invention patents all showed double-digit growth, according to PatSnap.

The top regions for patent application volume included Guangzhou Province, Jiangsu Province, Shanghai and Beijing in 2022, and Shanghai firms achieved the highest growth rate of the year with a 45.3 percent increase.

It fits well with Shanghai's strategy to develop five strategic "future" industries – health, smart devices, energy, space and new materials – to build the city a highland of innovation with global influence. By 2030, the output value of the five "future" industries is expected to reach about 500 billion yuan (US$71 billion), the Shanghai government said recently.

Among all STAR-listed firms, advanced manufacturing, next-generation information technology, biomedicine and new materials are the fastest-growing sectors for patent applications and capacity. In 2022, biomedicine patent application volume jumped 46.1 percent, much higher than the other industry sectors, according to PatSnap.

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