Chinese Patents, R&D Funds Climb in 2010

The Xinhua news agency reports that the number of patents and research and development funding by China’s largest companies have climbed so far in 2010, according to data released by the China Enterprise Confederation (CEC).

The CEC says China’s top 500 companies held 169,000 patents in 2010, up 13.3 percent from last year. Some 41 companies held 1,000 or more patents, while another 36 enterprises had between 200 and 1,000 patents.

The top 500 companies were also spending more of their earnings on R&D. According to the CEC, these enterprises spent on average 14.4 percent more on R&D in 2010 compared to 2009, which comes to 775 million yuan ($US 113.9 million) more per company, or 1.4 percent of their total revenues.

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