China has become the world's 5th largest US patent recipient, having increased the number of patents it received tenfold in less than 10 years, reports Bloomberg.

A report by IFI Claims Patent Services shows Chinese inventors received a total of 11,241 US patents in 2017, a 28% increase from the year before.

That number accounts for 3.5% of all patents awarded by the US Patent and Trademark Office last year.

The Chinese applications mainly cover the electronics field, according to lawyer Don Featherstone from Washington DC-based law firm Sterne Kessler which has helped many Chinese companies apply for the patents.

Huawei Technologies is the highest ranked Chinese company on IFI's list of recipients. It sits 20th with a total of 1,474 US patents.

A visitor explores Huawei products at the company's counter at the 2018 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, Nevada on January 9, 2018. [Photo: VCG]

The Bloomberg report suggests the US patents will offer Chinese companies protection when they sell their products in the US market.

Innovation has been a priority in China in the past decade. China's State Intellectual Property Office received 1.3 million patent applications in 2016, according to a World Intellectual Property Organization report.