Chinese companies filed 7,150 patents with the European Patent Office (EPO) in 2016, a year-on-year increase of 24.8%, according to figures released by the EPO last Tuesday.

欧洲专利局上周二发布的数据显示，2016年，中国企业向欧洲专利局共递交7150项专利申请，同比增长24.8%。

It was the fastest growth rate among the top 10 countries on the EPO's patent-filing league table.

这一增幅在欧洲专利局专利申请数量最多的十个国家中位列第一。

Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei filed a notable 2,390 patents, which was the second-largest filing by a company globally, after Philips with 2,568 patents.

值得注意的是，中国电信巨头华为递交了2390项专利申请，其专利申请数量在全球企业中排名第二，仅次于飞利浦(2568项)。

Other Chinese companies that filed a large number of patents included ZTE, Alibaba, Xiaomi, BYD and Haier, all of which are rapidly expanding into Europe.

其他专利申请活跃的中国企业还包括中兴、阿里巴巴、小米、比亚迪和海尔，这些中企均在欧洲迅速扩张。

Benoit Battistelli, president of the EPO, said the increase in patent filings by Chinese companies reflects both their increasing expansion into Europe and the fact that China is becoming a globally innovative¹ knowledge-based country.

欧洲专利局局长伯努瓦·巴迪斯戴利表示，中国公司专利申请量的增加，反映出中国加速扩张到欧洲、正成为一个知识型的全球创新型国家的事实。

"We are also witnessing a positive progress of diversification," he said. "In the past, most Chinese companies' patent filings were concentrated in the ICT sector², but now there are increasingly patents filed in engines, turbines, sports, automotive, and biotechnology sectors³."

他说道：“我们也在见证一个有关多样化的积极的发展。在过去，大多数中国企业的专利申请主要集中在信息通信技术领域，但是现在有越来越多的专利申请出现在了发动机、泵体、涡轮机、汽车行业以及生物技术等领域。”