Temporal and Spatial Evolution of Green Invention Patent Applications in China

This paper analyzes the temporal and spatial characteristics of green invention patent applications during 1985–2018. The results show that China’s green invention patent applications present five stages of slow development, slow growth, accelerating growth, rapid growth and booming. Green invention patent applications in the fields of energy conservation, alternative energy production and waste management have always been in the forefront, but there are relatively less green invention patent applications in transportation and nuclear power; which need to be further strengthened. Green invention patent applications show a high level of geographical agglomeration in space, mainly concentrated in the eastern region, followed by the central region, the western region and northeast region. During the study period, the differences among the four major regions, eastern, northeastern, central and western, showed a trend of first expanding and then narrowing, and the intra-regional differences were the main source of spatial differences. The number of green invention patent applications in the four regions also shifted in space during the research period. The temporal and spatial evolution characteristics are correlative to national and regional innovation policies. Aiming at solving the problems of unbalanced development in different categories of green invention patent applications and regions, this paper puts forward corresponding policy suggestions.