On May 16th, during the 10th China Automobile Intellectual Property Annual Conference, the Ten-Year Development Report on Intellectual Property in the Automotive Industry (hereinafter referred to as the "Report") was officially released. The Report was completed under the guidance of the expert think tank of the Automobile Industry Intellectual Property Alliance, systematically sorting out the global development trajectory of intellectual property in the automotive industry from 2016 to 2025, and comprehensively presenting the achievements and future trends of China's automotive IP development.

The Report pointed out that China's automotive patent publications, over the past decade, have consistently maintained a leading position globally, with continually rising proportion of invention patents, and dramatically shrinking utility model patents— which shows that the industry is accelerating its transition from "quantitative expansion" to "high-value patent portfolio development." Overseas patent layout has expanded from approximately 30 countries to over 50, reflecting a shift from "scale leadership" toward "deepened global deployment." As the global automotive industry accelerates its move into the era of "software-defined vehicles," IP is becoming deeply embedded in the industrial chain, innovation chain, and value chain. However, the overall number of global automotive patent litigation cases has shown a fluctuating upward trend, bringing new challenges for the globalization of Chinese automotive companies. Issues like patent barriers, regulatory compliance restrictions and difficulties in implementation in overseas markets for some core technologies need to be solved, the industry's IP risks have been increasingly complex.

From AutoIP

May 25th, 2026