Although the number of patents filed in China has exploded in recent years, resulting in China becoming the world’s top patent filer in 2011, a new report from the European Union Chamber of Commerce in China (European Chamber) takes the position that “the overall strength of China’s actual innovation appears overhyped,” and that China’s policies designed to encourage innovation may in fact hamper innovation.   The policies identified by the report include quantitative targets for patent applications, financial rewards for use and development of Chinese-owned or “indigenous” intellectual property, and state-funded megaprojects.  The European Chamber asserts that China’s “Soviet-style” emphasis on quantity, incremental innovation, and large-scale projects may actually hold back China’s innovative capacity, since “[o]ne cannot drive or ‘force’ creativity, but only nurture it.”
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