The amount of patent application in the city of Qingdao reached 27,009 in 2012, up by 36.3 percent year on year, according to the Qingdao Municipal Department of Intellectual Property on February 5.

The patent application amount in Qingdao ranks first among all the cities in Shandong Province, accounting for 21 percent of the total provincial figure in 2012. Among all the patent application cases, 12,092 were invention-related; 10155 utility model-related; and 4762 were design patents. A total of 12,689 cases received the patent granting in the city of Qingdao in 2012.

“Most of the applicants are research institutions and enterprises rather than individuals,” said Sun Guoxiang, the patent administration director of the Municipal Department of Intellectual Property. The reason for this lies in that individual patent promotion lacks funds and platforms, according to his analysis.