Gree Electric Appliances of Zhuhai registered 1,834 patents last year, the sixth-largest number for companies in the Chinese mainland and one position higher than in 2017.

The world's largest air conditioner supplier, Gree is the only home appliance company on the Chinese top 10 list, which was published by the National Intellectual Property Administration on Jan 10, in terms of patent numbers.

Huawei Technologies, the largest telecommunications equipment manufacturer in the world, leads the list with 3,369 patents. It is followed by oil, gas, and chemical giant China Petroleum & Chemical Corp at 2,849, and premier mobile phone producer Guangdong OPPO Mobile Telecommunications Corp with 2,345.

Patent-intensive Gree products [Photo courtesy WeChat account: GREE-1991]

State-owned Gree is a highly competitive conglomerate headquartered in Qianshan of Xiangzhou District. Innovation is part of the strategy as it remains committed to its motto of "Made in China, Loved by the World."

To date, Gree has applied for 49,013 patents, including 22,715 for inventions. It has mastered 24 international leading technologies and received two National Science & Technology Progress Awards and one State Technological Invention Award. Recently the company was granted 12 China Patent Awards including the only invention patent gold award in the air-conditioning field.

In 2018, the number of invention patent applications in China exceeded 1.5 million, of which 432,000 were successful.

The National Intellectual Property Administration also released statistical reports on trademarks, geographical indications, and layout designs of integrated circuits.