US continues to dominate PCT applications, but China closes in
China has overtaken Japan to claim second place as a source of Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) applications filed through the World Intellectual Property Organization in 2017.
With 48,882 applications, China is closing in on the top spot, which is currently occupied by the US (56,624 applications). The country is projected to overtake the US within three years, according to a report released by WIPO today, March 21.
Two Chinese technology companies were the top filers—Huawei filed 4,024 applications, while ZTE filed 2,965 applications. Intel, Mitsubishi and Qualcomm took third, fourth and fifth place, respectively.
Huawei also took first place at the European Patent Office, after filing the most European patent applications last year (2,398 applications).
Computer technology (8.6% of the total) overtook digital communication (8.2%) to become the field of technology with the largest share of published PCT applications.
Inventors from around the world filed 243,500 PCT applications in 2017, an increase of 4.5% from the previous year.
“This rapid rise in Chinese use of the international patent system shows that innovators there are increasingly looking outward, seeking to spread their original ideas into new markets as the Chinese economy continues its rapid transformation,” said WIPO director general Francis Gurry.
He added that this is part of a shift in the geography of innovation, with half of all international patent applications now originating in East Asia.
Demand also increased for WIPO’s international trademark filing service, the Madrid System, which saw 56,200 applications, an increase of 5% from 2016.
The US took first place with 7,884 applications, followed closely by Germany with 7,316. China took the third spot (5,230) and saw the fastest growth (36.3%) of the top 15 origins.
For corporate applicants, L’Oréal of France topped the list with 198 applications and the most-specified class in applications, computers and electronics, accounted for 9.8% of the total.
The number of industrial designs handled by WIPO’s Hague System grew by 3.8% to reach 19,429 designs.
This marks the eighth consecutive year of growth for all three WIPO filing systems.
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