China Tops Patent, Trademark, Design Filings in 2016

By: RONY DELUCIA, 6 DECEMBER 2017 

Worldwide filings for patents, trademarks and industrial designs reached record heights in 2016 amid soaring demand in China, which received more patent applications than the combined total for the United States of America, Japan, the Republic of Korea and the European Patent Office.

Innovators around the world filed 3.1 million patent applications in 2016, up 8.3% in a seventh straight yearly increase, according to WIPO’s annual World Intellectual Property Indicators (WIPI) report. China received about 236,600 of the nearly 240,600 additional patent filings, accounting for 98% of total growth. Trademark applications jumped by 16.4% to about 7 million, and worldwide industrial design applications grew by 10.4% to almost 1 million – both also driven by growth in China.

The latest figures charting a rise in demand for intellectual property rights confirm a decade-long trend, where developments in China increasingly leave their mark on the worldwide totals.

WIPO DG Francis Gurry

“The latest figures charting a rise in demand for intellectual property rights confirm a decade-long trend, where developments in China increasingly leave their mark on the worldwide totals,” said WIPO Director General Francis Gurry. “China is increasingly amongst the leaders in global innovation and branding.”

In figures

2015 2016 Growth (%)
Patent applications 2,887,300 3,127,900 8.3%
Trademark applications 6,013,200 6,997,600 16.4%
Industrial design applications 872,600 963,100 10.4%

For the first time, WIPO has collected data on geographical indications (GIs) – signs used on products that have a specific geographical origin and possess qualities or a reputation that are due to that origin, such as Gruyère for cheese or Tequila for spirits. The data cover 54 national and regional authorities, which reported around 42,500 protected GIs.

In addition, WIPO has collected new data from IP offices on certain dimensions of their operational performance, including the size of their examiner workforce, application pendency times and patent examination outcomes.  Among other things, these data show that the examination capacity of most IP offices has grown in line with the number of patent applications they have received.

Patents

China’s State Intellectual Property Office (SIPO) received the highest number of patent applications in 2016, a record total of 1.3 million. It was followed by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) (605,571), the Japan Patent Office (JPO) (318,381), the Korean Intellectual Property Office (KIPO) (208,830) and the European Patent Office (EPO) (159,358). On a per-capita basis, patent filings in China ranked behind those in Germany, Japan, the Republic of Korea and the U.S.

The top five offices accounted for 84% of the world total. Among the top five offices, China (+21.5%) and the U.S. (+2.7%) saw growth in filings, while the EPO (-0.4%), Japan (-0.1%) and the Republic of Korea (-2.3%) received fewer applications in 2016 than in 2015.

Read MOre >> http://www.military-technologies.net/2017/12/06/china-tops-patent-trademark-design-filings-in-2016-2/