Using intellectual property data to analyse China's growing technological capabilities

Motives for foreign multinational investment in China are gradually shifting from being primarily either market-seeking or efficiency-seeking towards competence-seeking motives. Are such moves justified and what might Chinese patent data tell us about where such competencies are located and which domestic entities are generating them? Such information is useful to companies to identify areas of potential opportunities and threats. Aggregated Chinese patent data is used to highlight China's growing technological capabilities generally and disaggregated data to demonstrate how patents can yield more specific competitive intelligence of use to firms. The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate that whilst issues regarding the patent system in China are presented largely in a negative light and focus upon the lax enforcement issues, the existing Chinese patent system, although in its relative infancy in international terms, can also be viewed positively as a rich source of information which can be tapped to assist in location decision-making as well as in identifying potential indigenous collaborators or competitors in China.