Worldwide filings for patents, trademarks and industrial designs reached record levels in 2016, against a backdrop of soaring demand from China, which received more patent applications than the United States of America, Japan, the Republic of Korea and the European Patent Office combined.
Innovators around the world filed some 3.1 million patent applications in 2016, an 8.3% increase that marks the seventh consecutive year of growth, according to the report on the World Intellectual Property Indicators report. China received around 236,600 of the almost 240,600 additional patent filings, accounting for 98% of the total growth. The number of trademark applications jumped by 16.4% to around 7 million, and the number of industrial design applications worldwide rose by 10.4% to almost 1 million, also driven by growth in China.
The latest figures, which show an increase in demand for intellectual property titles, confirm a trend observed over the past 10 years, whereby China's progress is increasingly leaving its mark on global statistics. China is increasingly among the world's top-ranked countries for innovation and brand creation. Francis Gurry, Director General of the World Intellectual Property Organization.
For the first time, WIPO is collecting data on geographical indications, signs affixed to products with a particular geographical origin and which possess qualities or a reputation essentially due to this origin, such as Gruyère cheese or tequila. The data comes from 54 national and regional authorities, which have supplied some 42,500 protected geographical indications.
In addition, WIPO has collected new data from intellectual property offices on certain aspects of their operations, including the number of examiners they have at their disposal, application processing times and patent examination results. These data show that the examination capacity of most IP offices has evolved in line with the number of patent applications received.