China's international patent applications soared to 8,000 cases in 2009 -- the fifth most in the world -- as the country strives to promote independent industrial and technological innovation.

PCT applications totalled 103 in 1994, when the nation approved the Patent Cooperation Treaty of 1970 designed to protect inventions with a unified patent application procedures.

Statistics from SIPO show China approved 582,000 of 977,000 domestic patent applications in 2009, up 41.2 percent year on year.

Chinese companies and individuals made up 50.9 percent of all domestically approved invention patents -- surpassing those from overseas for the first time.