BEIJING, Feb. 15 (Xinhuanet) -- The amount of U.S. patent applications to China reached 20,395 in 2005, a year-on-year increase of 30 percent, Li Yuguang, deputy director of State Intellectual Property Offices (SIPO) said.

    Li said the United States ranks second in the amount of patent applications by foreign businesses to China in 2005, only next to Japan.

    "This shows the U.S. business circles confide in China's intellectual property rights (IPR) protection, especially in the establishment and implementation of the patent system," Li stressed at the China-US Business Forum.

    In July 2005, top Chinese and US trade officials reached a consensus on IPR protection. The two sides agreed to set up cooperation mechanisms on cross-border prosecutions for IPR violations and on the protection of movie copyrights.

    "China and the United States realized the influence of intellectual property rights to bilateral economic progress after China's entry to the World Trade Organization," he said, adding the two countries need to know the disparity of the intellectual property system and the difference of historical development as well as cultural difference of the two sides.

    The first U.S. patent system was established as early as 1641 but China's intellectual property system only has a history of over 20 years with China's Patent Law set in 1984, he said, addingChina will learn more from the U.S. in this regard.

    In 2005, total patent applications for inventions stood at 173,327 in China and 406,302 in the United States, official statistics show. Meanwhile, authorized patents are 53,305 in China and 165,485 in the United States.

    "Among all the authorized patents in China last year, the domestic patents exceeded the foreign ones with 20,705 for domestic patents and 32,600 for the foreign ones," Li said.

    China prosecuted 2,991 intellectual property rights related crimes in 2005, which involved 2.06 billion yuan (251 million US dollars), according to the Ministry of Public Security on Nov. 15.

    Li also said the SIPO director will visit the United States and discuss bilateral cooperation in IPR protection at the invitation its US counterpart on Feb. 22, 2006. Enditem