An increasing number of studies are using either worldwide Chinese patent applications as
an indicator to assess the country's international competitiveness or applications at the
Chinese SIPO as an indicator of the internal structure of innovative activities on its domestic
market. Whenever such macro level studies are presented, however, many practitioners
tend to express disbelief regarding the validity of patent indicators in this emerging market,
where IPR protection is perceived to play a role that differs strongly from that in other …