The latest figures on China's patent registration suggest that last year it was the most innovative country in the world, outpacing technically advanced countries such the US, Japan, and Canada. These figures were brought forth by a new report by World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO).

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The Geneva-based organization claimed that China filed a total of 1,010,406 patent applications, which was more than the applications filed by the next three following countries: United States, Japan, and South Korea. The large number of applications also make China the first country to reach the million-patent mark in a single calendar year.

However, many experts have expressed doubt over whether these figures are truly indicative about China's progress in innovation. This is mainly because China has filed most of its patent application locally, or within the geography of its own country.  

Margaret Dalziel, associate professor at the Conrad Business, Entrepreneurship and Technology Centre at the University of Waterloo, said that if Chinese patents were truly innovative then their innovators would have chosen to file them in commercially viable markets like the US and Europe.

WIPO's report said that out of the total Chinese application, only 4 percent were filed abroad. This stands starkly in contrast to the impressive 45 percent application filed by Japan and the United States in abroad.

Chinese telecom major Huawei and ZTE led the way in intellectual property filings overseas.

Many local analysts suggest that the government's incentives and subsidies partly lead to such a huge number of local filings. These incentives were part of Chinese government's long-term goal to  build strong culture of innovation within the country.

As far as the status of global innovation is concerned, the WIPO report claimed that a total 2.9 million patent applications were filed globally in 2015. This is 7.8 percent increase than the previous year.  

Tagschina patent, Patent, World Intellectual Property Organization, Wipo