BEIJING — It is not easy to stand out as an innovator in China, a country with more than 5 million patents a year, and earning a gold award in this talent-dense pool is an achievement of exceptional rarity and excellence, and most definitely a hard-won honor.

The 2025 China Patent Awards were presented by the China National Intellectual Property Administration and the World Intellectual Property Organization at the 14th China International Patent Fair earlier this month.

A total of 40 Chinese inventions and designs were awarded gold medals for their groundbreaking innovation and significant contributions to economic and social progress, representing the tangible outcomes of China's independent innovation strategy.

Among this year's gold-medal-winning patents, 35 are held by enterprises or involved enterprise-led contributions, highlighting the effectiveness of China's national strategy to foster enterprises as the primary drivers of innovation. Private companies account for a substantial proportion of the awardees, including tech giants like Huawei and leading home appliance makers like Gree, as well as small and medium-sized firms targeting niche markets.

Tencent's award-winning patent is a method to process ultra-large-scale databases in a short time frame. It has been adopted by 40 financial institutions and has provided technical support for national censuses, medical insurance platforms and the Shenzhen Metro system. It also marked the tech company's fifth time as a recipient of China's top patent prize, with its QQ instant messaging platform, Tencent Meeting videoconferencing tool and digital red envelopes on WeChat all claiming gold in past years.

Sustained research and development commitment is key to breakthroughs. Tencent had filed more than 88,000 patent applications as of June 30 and invested more than 379 billion yuan ($53.19 billion) in R&D since 2018.

HUION's booth was a magnet at the fair, drawing passersby to try out its pen-display products. Its design integrates a keyboard with a drawing tablet, earning the small, Shenzhen-based company a gold award.

When HUION was launched in 2011, it faced difficulties in exploring domestic and foreign markets. "At the toughest time, our monthly sales were only a few hundred units," HUION founder Xu Hefeng recalled. Despite this, the company remained focused on R&D and IP. Today, it has realized independent research and production of all key components, achieving full supply-chain localization. In 2024, its output value exceeded 1 billion yuan, with exports reaching approximately 700 million yuan.

"This industry is niche, but a niche product can still become a world-class brand," Xu said.

This year's top-award patents come from distinct regional clusters: Guangdong province led with 11, followed by Beijing with nine, and Shanghai, Jiangsu province and Zhejiang province each had three. Interestingly, this was closely aligned with WIPO's latest ranking of the world's innovation clusters.

The Global Innovation Index 2025 report revealed that China leads globally in its number of innovation clusters, boasting 24 that are ranked among the world's top 100. The Shenzhen-Hong Kong-Guangzhou cluster surged to the top spot for the first time, with Beijing coming in fourth and the Shanghai-Suzhou cluster in sixth.

These regions are global hotspots for patent applications, high-level academic papers and venture capital investment, according to WIPO.

Xiao Geng, a professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen, noted that in recent years, a rising level of overseas talent has chosen to return to China, with the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area being the preferred destination due to its leading universities and institutions. Shenzhen also benefits from a strong industrial foundation, with leading enterprises such as Huawei and BYD making substantial R&D investments and generating a large number of patents annually.

These big companies are also making outward investments, helping local small and medium-sized enterprises grow, Xiao said, adding that small firms are also ramping up their innovation efforts.

"A large-scale, high-quality accumulation of human capital and an effective corporate innovation ecosystem have unleashed strong momentum for innovation and the economic value of the region," said Ding Li, a researcher at the Guangdong Academy of Social Sciences.

The winning patents not only represent the crowns of Chinese innovation — many also stand at the global forefront in their fields.

Take the 5G core technology patent that won China Mobile a gold award as an example. It is the second such award that the major telecom operator has received for a patent, following its 2014 recognition for a technology patent in the field of 4G.

Its 5G patent solved the issue of low latency in the field of industrial internet and was written into international standards in 2018. It has since been rolled out across more than 1 million 5G base stations around the world, powering smart grids, hospitals, ports and factories.

"We have always been committed to becoming a world-class information service and technology innovation company," said Liu Jia, deputy general manager of China Mobile's sci-tech innovation department, noting that the enterprise has already filed over 1,700 patents internationally.

Speeches delivered during this year's awards presentation frequently used the term "globally leading" to describe innovative inventions such as an ultra-thin display glass, a vaccine product to prevent cervical cancer, and nuclear power technologies and equipment.

In the context of globalization, patents protect our innovation, defend our market edge and turn technology into value, Chen Yimin, vice-president of automaker Geely Holding Group, said at the awards ceremony, representing this year's winners.

"We will deepen cooperation, participate in the formulation of international rules and make contributions to the globalization of the automotive industry," Chen said.

Xinhua