BEIJING - China received 11,243 international patent applications through the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) in the first half of the year, the State Intellectual Property Office said Wednesday.

The number of international patent applications represented an increase of 20.5 percent from a year earlier, according to the office.

About 91.5 percent of the total patent applications came from domestic companies and individuals with 10,283 filings.

Information technology giant companies, such as telecommunication device and solution providers Huawei and ZTE, and semiconductor supplier BOE Technology Group Co Ltd, were most active in filing patent applications, the office said.

More than half of international patent applications came from South China's Guangdong province in the January-June period, according to the office.

The PCT provides a unified procedure for filing patent applications to protect inventions in each of its contracting states.

The United States and Japan contributed the top number of foreign international patent applications in China, with 482 and 94 filings respectively.

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