WIPO: China is a leader in patent applications but lags behind the US and Europe in added value

January 31, 2023

Patent filings worldwide grew by 3.6% in 2021. Trademark and industrial design filing activity grew by 5.5% and 9.2%, respectively. Patent filings around the world exceeded 3.4 million, trademark filing activity totaled 18.1 million and industrial design filing activity amounted to 1.5 million. Applications for utility models – a special form of patent right – dropped by 2.5% to 2.9 million applications.

More than 85% of all patent filings in 2021 occurred in the IP offices of China, the US, Japan, the Republic of Korea and the EPO. China accounted for 46.6% of the world total.

In 2021, China’s IP office received around 1.59 million patent applications. It was followed by the offices of the US, Japan, the Republic of Korea and the European Patent Office. The top 10 offices accounted for 91.6% of the world total in 2021.

Around 277,200 PCT international applications were filed in 2021, up 0.8% on 2020, maintaining an upward trend since 2010. Applicants from China filed the most PCT applications. The US, Japan, the Republic of Korea and Germany completed the list of the top five origins. The top 10 countries accounted for around 88% of total applications in 2021.

Applicants from China and the US filed most heavily in computer technology. Japan and Germany filed mostly in electrical machinery and the Republic of Korea in digital communication.

China’s Huawei Technologies remained the top filer of PCT international applications in 2021. It was followed by Qualcomm from the US, Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics from the Republic of Korea, and Mitsubishi Electric of Japan. Among the top 10 users, eight were located in the North-East Asia.

Source: International Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO)
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