According to SIPO, the accumulated amount of applications for design patent evaluation report has hit 30,000 in China as of September 4, 2017; it took 5 years for the number of this application to reach the first 10,000, 14 months to reach the second 10,000, and only 10 months to reach the third 10,000.

The 30,000 evaluation reports involve 197 classes under International Classification for Industrial Designs, covering 92.1% of the whole list of 214 classes. Most of the applications are for daily consuming products such as bags, lightings, household vessels, toys, furniture, cosmetic products, photographic and cinematographic products, each of which have over 1,000 applications. It aligns with the numbers of design patent applications filed in these fields, and these fields are basically those covered by the Express IPR Enforcement Centers established by SIPO. The design patent evaluation report mechanism supplements the design patent preliminary examination system, which, as more widely recognized, plays an important role in Internet IPR protection, Customs recordal and infringement litigation. (Source: China IP Daily)