Why should I bother filing my IP in China?

A reckoning for New Zealand founders and SMEs

We regularly sit across the table from New Zealand business owners who say, with quiet conviction, that there’s no point filing patents or trade marks in China because everything gets copied, the courts will not help, and the cost of trying is money better spent elsewhere. We understand where that view comes from. This used to have a kernel of truth in it. But the world has moved and the position is no longer defensible if you are serious about building a global business.

The scale has flipped

China is no longer a follower in the global patent system but its centre of gravity. In 2024 China's patent office received roughly 1.8 million patent applications[1], almost half of the global total of 3.7 million and three times the number filed in the United States, which sat in second place on 603,194.

Chinese entities hold seven of the top ten places among the world's largest active patent portfolios[2]. Huawei has been the single largest PCT applicant for several years running[3], and Chinese universities and state-backed research centres are pouring out filings across exactly the sectors New Zealand startups operate in, including agritech, medtech, clean energy, advanced materials, food science and automation.

What this means in practical terms is that China is increasingly the place where global technical standards, design conventions and regulatory expectations are being set, and if your intellectual property (IP) is not on the register there then your freedom-to-operate in your own market is being shaped by other people's filings rather than your own.

The enforcement story has changed

The assumption that Chinese courts will side with the local infringer is no longer the case. Previous statistics from the Beijing IP Court, yes they have courts dedicated to just IP law, show foreign plaintiffs winning roughly 68% of civil IP cases against Chinese defendants[4]. China now has specialist IP courts in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, a dedicated IP tribunal at the Supreme People's Court that has accepted more than 20,000 cases since 2019[5]. The fourth amendment to China’s Patent Law that came into effect in 2021 also allows punitive damages of up to five times compensatory damages for wilful infringement.

The case law has followed. Bayer recovered ¥24.3 million in a high-pressure syringe patent dispute[6], Swiss medical device company Synthes was awarded over ¥20 million against a Chinese competitor[7], and Canadian toy maker Spin Master walked away with ¥15 million against a Chinese copycat of its Bakugan line[8]. None of these are New Zealand-scale claims, but they signal something important, which is that Chinese courts are functioning as a real enforcement venue for foreign patent holders and that damages awarded have been climbing year on year.

Why this matters for a New Zealand businesses

For a New Zealand business the question is rarely about whether you intend to set up a factory in Shenzhen, because most of our clients never will. It is about three other things that are far more consequential.

1. Your manufacturing supply chain. For example, many New Zealand hardware startups have their products contract-manufactured in China at some point, and without a Chinese patent or registered design you have no leverage against a factory that decides to produce additional quantities of your product to sell themselves.
2. Third-country market protection. Chinese copycats often do not stay in China but ship to Australia, Europe, the Middle East and South America. Registered Chinese IP rights allows you to seize the replica product not only at source but also at the border heading out of China.
3. Corporate value. Investors, acquirers and licensing partners increasingly run IP due diligence that asks the simple question of whether you own your innovation in the world's largest manufacturing economy, and a blank answer increasingly costs you money on the term sheet.

What you need to do

The good news for New Zealand businesses is that filing in China is no longer the eye-watering exercise it was a decade ago.

The strategic decision is not whether to file in China but what to file, in which form, and for which products in your portfolio. That conversation belongs at the start of your IP strategy rather than as an afterthought when you discover your product on online marketplaces such as Alibaba.

The real cost is inaction

The cost of a Chinese patent over its full lifecycle is almost always a fraction of the value at risk if a competitor:

• secures the rights ahead of you
• files a defensive blocking patent against your own product
• copies you with impunity because you never registered your IP.

The era in which "we don't bother with China" was a defensible position has closed. The question is not whether China matters to your IP strategy but whether your IP strategy reflects the world that actually exists.

Our experts

Anton Blijlevens is a trans-Tasman patent attorney with over 32 years' experience advising New Zealand and Australian businesses on international IP strategy.

Shijie Yu is a former Chinese patent attorney and in-house IP counsel with over 13 years’ experience, combining a strong engineering and legal background to deliver commercially aligned IP solutions to clients.