No doubt: China is a World Power in Patents

I saw it reported in the Economix blog of the New York Times that China is about to take the global lead in patent application filings.

There is nothing surprising about this.

Indeed it is almost exactly a year since I mentioned in this blog about China passing out Japan to lead the world in Chemical patents and also about the country's academic commitment to IP.

Of course you will hear the usual chorus about quantity-versus-quality and they-don't-respect-our-patents-so-let's-not-respect-theirs.

The more enlightened might just get get a little more scared and a bit more respectful.