This Day, That Year

Item from Jan 9, 1988, in China Daily: Youngest patent holder.

Nine-year-old Wu Chao, from Zhejiang province, became the youngest Chinese to get a patent from the China Patent Office in December for her invention of a mosquito coil stand.

More than 1.1 million patent applications were received by China’s State Intellectual Property Office in 2015, up by 19 percent from the previous year, the agency reported.

It was the fifth time China had topped world patent applications. The agency approved more than 350,000 patents in 2015, a majority of them from applicants within China.

In recent years, intellectual property has received more attention in China, and new technologies have also been introduced to better secure the patents.

The agency announced months ago that it will use big data to keep a close eye on online infringements and provide “stringent” protection of patents.

The move reflects the central government’s determination to create an innovation-friendly environment and improve intellectual property protection.

Under the new policy, regulators will use the latest technologies to monitor violations.

E-commerce, which has seen a growing number of copyright infringements in recent years, will be the focus of their investigation.

In 2015, about 7,600 patent disputes were investigated in the e-commerce sector.