Multinationals' agchem Patent Watch in China

Agropages recently made an investigation on patent application status of China’s agrochemical market, which showed that the patent quantities applied by multinational companies are much larger than those by China’s domestic companies. Those patents include active substances, processing lines and formulations. As part of its intangible assets, patents’ quantity and value are the hallmarks of technical renovation and competency for a company. Patent application is already a powerful weapon for multinational company to maintain its competitive edge.

By March 30th, 2014, DuPont already applied 5736 patents, ranking first in the list with number of applications, followed by Dow and Sumitomo Chemical.

Japan’s companies still actively promote patent application in China. Among the top 12 companies, five are from Japan, such as Mitsui Chemicals, Nissan Chemical, Nippon Soda and Ishihara sangyo kaisha. The details are as follow:

Rank	Company	Total applications	Inventions	New utility models	Designs
1	DuPont	5736	5617	42	77
2	Dow	4292	4271	14	7
3	Sumitomo Chemical	4059	4039	9	11
4	BASF	3971	3939	27	5
5	Mitsui Chemicals	1365	1360	4	1
6	Bayer	1209	1135	26	48
7	Syngenta	633	496	0	137
8	Nissan Chemical	622	622	0	0
9	Monsanto	552	550	2	0
10	FMC	312	305	2	5
11	Nippon Soda	242	242	0	0
12	Ishihara sangyo kaisha	211	211	0	0
Date by March 30th, 2014 Source: State intellectual property office of P.R.C