Application and characteristics of patents in the packaging technology of cigarette companies both in China and abroad were analyzed through checking the patent data from 2004 to 2013 via domestic and overseas websites including www.5ipatent.com and the homepage of the State Intellectual Property Office of China. The patent application status, technology type distribution and R&D trend were analyzed by comparative analysis approach and other patent analysis tools. The results showed that the packaging department of cigarette companies has become the main force of packaging innovation in China and abroad, invention patent was the main form of patents in overseas competitors, while the domestic cigarette companies applied a relatively small proportion of invention patents and the patent structure needs to be improved. The mostly applied packaging technology patents in domestic and foreign cigarette companies were the patents for packaging box, smoking filter and cigarette paper.