June 3 marked the 30th anniversary of China's membership in the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO).

Since that day three decades ago, when China became the 90th member of WIPO, the country's State Intellectual Property Office (SIPO) has grown into the world's fifth-most prolific source of international Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) patents.

Last year 7,946 PCT patents from China were filed, during a year when the number of PCT applications declined worldwide for the first time due to global economic turmoil.