On August 16, 2024, China’s National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA) released a report on the National Intellectual Property Agency Industry Development Status (2023) (全国知识产权代理行业发展状况（2023年)). The report provides statistics on the patent agent industry including the number of patent and trademark firms, number of patent agents, and number of patent agent bar exam takers. Of note, the number of patent agent bar exam takers declined for the first time in a decade and the number of trademark agencies dropped almost 50% (probably because most of them failed to reregister in 2023 per last year’s report on Industry Development Status).
Some highlights:

• By the end of 2023, the total number of patent agencies reached 5,269, a year-on-year increase of 16.6%.

• By the end of 2023, the number of registered trademark agencies nationwide totaled 35,712 (a drop from 71,446).

• By the end of 2023, a total of 76,230 people had obtained patent agent qualification certificates, a year-on-year increase of 20.4%.

• The number of practicing patent agents reached 34,396, a year-on-year increase of 9.7%, accounting for 45.1% of the total number of people with patent agent qualifications.

• 3,448 were practicing patent agents for the first time in 2023.

• In 2023, a total of 47,649 people registered for the examination nationwide (a decline of 8% from 51,511 in 2022), and 6,150 people passed the examination (a 12.9% pass rate versus a 46% pass rate for the U.S. patent bar exam).

The original text is available here (Chinese only). Charts from CNIPA follow.

Changes in the number of patent agencies from 2014 to 2023

Changes in the number of registered trademark agencies from 2014 to 2023

Changes in the number of total patent agents (green bar) and practicing patent agents (blue bar) from 2014 to 2023

Changes in the number of registrations for Patent Agent Bar Examination 2014-2023

Source:CHINA IP Law Update