This paper takes the grant patents, an indicator integrating quantity and quality, and adopts time series analysis to restore the patent development road since the foundation of P.R. China. The technology patents have grown out of nothing. Before 1949, there was neither relevant patent law nor regulation, and it was not until 1984 that the patent law of the People's Republic of China was officially introduced, indicating that China's patent system was initially formed. However, the number of grant patents in China at that year was 0, and until 1985 China had published 54 grant patents. It took 35 years for China to develop its patent system from scratch. Then China's technology patents developed from slow to fast. From 1985 to 2000, it took 16 years for China's annual grant patent number to exceed 10,000. Only ten years later in 2009 more than 100,000 patents were granted. Moreover, in 2012 the number of grant patents exceeded 200,000. With the number of China's annual grant patents exceeding 400,000, China is now on the road toward a country of strong intellectual property rights. Since the foundation of P.R. China, technology patents have also gone from weak to strong. During the 20 years from 1989 to 2008, the proportion of patents belonging to Chines mainland was continuously lower than 50%, and the strength of its technology dominance was also continuously lower than 1. Even from 1999 to 2003, the strength of its technology dominance was only 0.51. However, since 2009, the proportion of patents belonging to Chines mainland has steadily grown, rising to 75.48% from 2014 to 2018, while its technological dominance strength increasing to 3.08.

China of patent  /  grant patent  /  patent dominance