The China Academy of Information and Communications Technology released the White Paper on Innovation and Development of the ICT Industry (2020), showing that AI and semiconductors have become the hot fields for patent applications this year.
Judging from the ICT manufacturing patent applications filed globally in the first nine months of 2020, the hot fields are AI, semiconductor chip manufacturing, baseband radio frequency systems and laser communication systems. China’s innovation in the ICT field continues to increase, with the trend of patent applications growing rapidly, the global proportion of total patents and the overseas patent planning continuing to increase.
The white paper discloses that from 2001 to the end of August this year, the total number of ICT patent applications in China has reached 400,000, accounting for about one-third of the world. The United States, Japan, and South Korea follow closely behind, accounting for about 20% to 10%.
On top of that, in recent years, China no longer simply focus on the pure number of patent applications, but have paid more attention to patent quality, and their influence has been increasing.
Data show that there are currently more than 230,000 companies in the information and communication technology industry with “integrated circuits and chips” as their main businesses.
But the white paper also shows that the demand for professionals in China’s integrated circuit industry this year is as high as 720,000, while the existing talent stock is only more than 400,000, and there is still a talent gap of nearly 300,000. Not only that, the annual increase in the number of graduates in China is only about 5%, so the talent gap in the industry will still take some time to fill.
