China shows it can innovate too

China invented gunpowder, paper and the compass. Yet it is often accused of a failure to innovate. US frustration over the theft of intellectual property is at the heart of last week’s promising but inconclusive trade talks. But Chinese patents are growing at a startling rate. China gets more than twice as many patent applications as the US, having overtaken it in 2011. Its critics may have to accept that copycats can innovate too.

Not so fast, say sceptics. Government policies tend to emphasise quantity over quality. Only a fifth of Chinese patents could be classed as inventions, rather than minor design tweaks or other incremental changes. Many patents granted in China are to foreign multinationals wanting to protect themselves from knock-offs.

The Middle Kingdom’s success in building up an innovation economy is unprecedented, experts say. China is the only country whose companies notched up an increase in US patents in 2018, it emerged last week. Two Chinese technology companies, Huawei and ZTE, were the top filers of international patent applications in 2017. Hefty research & development spending by the likes of Alibaba, Tencent, ZTE and Baidu means Chinese research spending is growing faster than elsewhere.

China is not alone in generating pointless patents. Japan is famed for useless inventions. The US has granted protection for daft ideas such as outdoor pet potties and edible business cards. It is also home to bitter lawsuits over patents in the tech industry, which are numerous, vague and sweeping. About 250,000 affect smartphones.

Expect such legal battles to spread to China. In November a Fuzhou court granted chipmaker Qualcomm an injunction against Apple. That is a sign that attitudes to intellectual property rights there are changing. US ire will not easily be defused. But as Chinese technical prowess grows, so too will its incentive to protect homegrown ideas. /London, January 10