The 2025 China Patent Awards were presented by the China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA) and the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) at the 14th China International Patent Fair earlier this month. A total of 40 Chinese inventions and designs were awarded gold medals for their groundbreaking innovation and significant contributions to economic and social progress. Among this year’s gold-medal-winning patents, 35 are held by enterprises or involved enterprise-led contributions, highlighting the effectiveness of China’s national strategy to foster enterprises as the primary drivers of innovation. Private companies account for a substantial proportion, including Huawei and Gree, as well as small and medium-sized firms targeting niche markets. Tencent’s award-winning patent is a method to process ultra-large-scale databases in a short time frame. It has been adopted by 40 financial institutions and has provided technical support for national censuses, medical insurance platforms and the Shenzhen Metro system. It also marked the tech company’s fifth time as a recipient of China’s top patent prize, with its QQ instant messaging platform, Tencent Meeting video-conferencing tool and digital red envelopes on WeChat all claiming gold in past years.
Sustained research and development is key to breakthroughs. Tencent had filed more than 88,000 patent applications as of June 30 and invested more than CNY379 billion in R&D since 2018. Huion’s booth was a magnet at the Patent Fair, drawing passersby to try out its pen-display products. When Huion was launched in 2011, it faced difficulties in exploring domestic and foreign markets. “At the toughest time, our monthly sales were only a few hundred units,” Huion Founder Xu Hefeng recalled. Despite this, the company remained focused on R&D and IP. Today, it has realized independent research and production of all key components, achieving full supply-chain localization and in 2024 its output value exceeded CNY1 billion, with exports reaching approximately CNY700 million. “This industry is niche, but a niche product can still become a world-class brand,” Xu said.
This year’s top-award patents come from distinct regional clusters: Guangdong province led with 11, followed by Beijing with nine, and Shanghai, Jiangsu province and Zhejiang province each had three. These regions are global hotspots for patent applications, high-level academic papers and venture capital investment, according to WIPO. Speeches delivered during this year’s awards presentation frequently used the term “globally leading” to describe innovative inventions such as an ultra-thin display glass, a vaccine to prevent cervical cancer, and nuclear power technologies and equipment, the China Daily reports.
