ZTE Corp said that as per the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) its patent application figures for 2009 increased by 50% on a yearly comparison while the global WIPO applications dropped for the first time in 30 years.

ZTE says that while it applied for 1,164 patents in 2009, the ones processed by WIPO till now numbered 502.

 “ZTE has persistently pursued a principle of combining patent applications with market demand, product R&D and standards research rather than an eye for merely numerical increases in patent applications,” said Mr. Guo Xiaoming, ZTE’s Global Intellectual Property Director. “We’ll continue to bring in more state-of-the-art technologies to drive the development of the global telecom industry.”

According to WIPO, China is set to overtake USA in the intellectual property space by 2020.