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Government targets, end-of-year patenting rush and innovative performance in China

Nature Biotechnology volume 39, pages 1068–1075 (2021)Cite this article

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A study of the seasonality and overall quantity and quality of Chinese patenting, including international comparisons, suggests that government planning and annual targets encouraged gaming of the system, which increased patent counts but negatively affected patent quality.

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Fig. 1: Turbulence in patent filings by Chinese inventors around 2000.
Fig. 2: End-of-year peaks in the number of patent applications at SIPO.
Fig. 3: End-of-year troughs in grant rate of patent applications, by filing dates at SIPO.
Fig. 4: End-of-year troughs in forward citations to granted patents, by filing dates at SIPO.

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Acknowledgements

This research was partly funded by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). The opinions expressed in the paper are the authors’ own. The authors are grateful to Stuart Graham of the Georgia Institute of Technology, formerly chief economist of the USPTO, for his support and comments.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Economics, School of Social Sciences, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China

    Zhen Sun & Taoxiong Liu

  2. Department of Energy and Mineral Engineering, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, USA

    Zhen Lei

  3. EMS Energy Institute, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, USA

    Zhen Lei

  4. Department of Agricultural & Resource Economics, University of California Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, USA

    Brian D. Wright

  5. Berkeley Center for Law and Technology, University of California Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, USA

    Mark Cohen

  6. Office of Policy and International Affairs, United States Patent and Trademark Office, Alexandria, VA, USA

    Mark Cohen

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  1. Zhen Sun
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Correspondence to Zhen Lei.

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Supplementary Data 1–11 with tables and figures

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Sun, Z., Lei, Z., Wright, B.D. et al. Government targets, end-of-year patenting rush and innovative performance in China. Nat Biotechnol 39, 1068–1075 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41587-021-01035-x

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