China continues to top IP filings list
China was responsible for a third of the world’s patent filings last year as it topped the list again, the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) has said.
According to WIPO figures released on Tuesday (December 16), 32.1% of the world’s 2.57 million applications in 2013 came from China. The US and Japan continued to be among the world’s biggest filers, taking up second and third places.
WIPO’s report, called the World Intellectual Property Indicators 2014, showed that computer technology (7.6% of total filings) represented the most published applications worldwide, followed by electrical machinery (7.2%).
Among the offices to receive a dip in applications since 2012 was the European Patent Office (-0.4%) and the UK Intellectual Property Office (-1.3%).
Francis Gurry, director general at WIPO, said the filing trends “mirrored the broader economic picture”.
“The diverging performance of the world economy appears to be leaving its mark on the global innovation landscape,” he added.
But despite China’s heavy filing activity, the State Intellectual Property Office did not grant the most patents and China did not have the most patents in force last year.
Of the 9.45 million patents in force, the US accounted for the most with 2.39 million (26% of the total), followed by Japan (19%).
WIPO said the total number of trademark registrations issued in 2013, as was the case with the previous two years, had “hovered around three million”. This, WIPO said, was despite annual increases in trademark applications, suggesting that “backlogs of unprocessed applications may be building up” in some larger offices.
The number of classes specified in applications passed the seven million mark for the first time.
Strong demand in China helped to drive trademark applications. The country’s 1.8 million class counts total was closely followed by those in the US and at the EU’s Office for Harmonization in the Internal Market.
It is the second year in a row that China has topped the list for both patent and trademark activity.
