With global environmental deterioration, accelerated resource depletion, and increasing public attention to environmental protection, green technologies focusing on reducing resource consumption, developing renewable resources, and mitigating environmental pollution have become a worldwide focal point. Policies encouraging and supporting the development of green industries have been frequently introduced, driving the rapid advancement of green technologies and environmental industries. However, the creation, application, and promotion of green technologies are inseparable from intellectual property systems, particularly patent protection. Countries, regions, and international organizations such as the United States, the United Kingdom, China, the European Union, and the United Nations Climate Change Conference have begun practical explorations of green patent systems, leveraging the public policy attributes of patent regimes to align with the goals of green technology innovation and development.
Green technologies refer to technologies that facilitate resource conservation, energy efficiency improvement, pollution prevention and control, and sustainable development. These primarily include alternative energy, environmental materials, energy conservation and emission reduction, pollution control and remediation, and recycling technologies. China is currently actively exploring the construction of a green patent system. Notably, the "Measures for the Management of Priority Patent Examination" implemented in August 2017 explicitly states that patents related to national key development industries—such as energy conservation and environmental protection, next-generation information technology, biology, high-end equipment manufacturing, new energy, new materials, and new energy vehicles—may request priority examination.
According to the "China Green Patent Statistical Report (2014-2017)" released by the China National Intellectual Property Administration in 2018, green innovation activities in China are currently vigorous, with the volume of green patents steadily increasing. By the end of 2017, China's valid green patents reached 136,000. In terms of patent applications, from 2014 to 2017, China's green patent applications totaled 249,000, with an average annual growth rate 3.7 percentage points higher than the overall average annual growth rate of invention patents in China.
The CnOpenData team has identified patent citations and cited references for three categories of Chinese green patents: invention patent applications, granted invention patents, and utility model patents. This resulted in the creation of the Chinese Green Patent Citation Table and the Chinese Green Patent Cited Table, providing data support for research on green patents.
Time Period
1985-2024.12.31
Field Display
Sample Data
Chinese Green Patent Citation Table
Chinese Green Patent Cited Table
Related Literature
- Tao Feng, Zhao Jinyu, Zhou Hao, 2021: "Has Environmental Regulation Achieved 'Quantity Increase and Quality Improvement' in Green Technology Innovation? Evidence from the Environmental Protection Target Responsibility System," China Industrial Economics, No. 2.
- Li Qingyuan, Xiao Zehua, 2020: "Heterogeneous Environmental Regulatory Tools and Corporate Green Innovation Incentives—Evidence from Green Patents of Listed Companies," Economic Research Journal, No. 9.
- Qi Shaozhou, Lin Shen, Cui Jingbo, 2018: "Can Environmental Rights Trading Markets Induce Green Innovation? Evidence from Green Patent Data of Chinese Listed Companies," Economic Research Journal, No. 12.
- Josh L., Amit S., 2021: "The Use and Misuse of Patent Data: Issues for Finance and Beyond," The Review of Financial Studies.
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