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World Intellectual Property Indicators 2024: Global Patent Applications See 4th Consecutive Year of Growth Despite Challenging Macroeconomic Environment

 

The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) recently published the 2024 edition of World Intellectual Property Indicators (WIPI), detailing the latest status and analysing the development trends of intellectual property (IP) activities in respect of patent, trademark, industrial design, plant variety, and geographical indication (GI) worldwide.

 

In 2023, Asia continued to dominate in patent, trademark and industrial design filings, accounting for 68.7%, 66.7%, and 69% of global filings respectively, and within the region, IP filings were highly concentrated, with IP offices in China, Japan, and South Korea accounting for 91.1%, 77.0%, and 87.2% of patent, trademark, and industrial design filings in Asia respectively.

 

Patent

Global patent application activity reached new heights in 2023. The number of applications exceeded 3.5 million for the first time, an increase of 2.7% over 2022, marking the fourth consecutive year of growth in global patent applications despite the challenging macroeconomic environment.

 

Innovators residing in China filed around 1.64 million patent applications worldwide in 2023, up 3.6% year-on-year. Following China were the US (518,364, up 2.5%), Japan (414,413, up 2.2%), South Korea (287,954, up 5.7%), and Germany (133,053, up 1.4%). India, moving up one spot to sixth place, achieved 15.7% growth in 2023, maintaining a double-digit growth for the fifth consecutive year.

 

For patent granting, an estimated 2 million patents were granted worldwide in 2023, representing a 10.1% increase over the previous year, the fastest growth rate since 2012. China, with an issuance of 920,797 patents in 2023, accounted for 45.9% of the world total, which was followed by the US (315,245 patents), Japan (209,368), South Korea (134,734), and the European Patent Office (104,609).

 

Patents in force across 140 jurisdictions reached an estimated 18.6 million as of 2023, up 7.6% year-on-year. China had the highest number of patents in force (5 million), followed by the US (3.5 million), Japan (2.1 million), South Korea (1.3 million), and Germany (928,106).

 

In terms of technical fields of the applications, according to the latest available full-year data of 2022, computer technology was the most frequently featured technology in published patent applications worldwide, accounting for 12.4% of the world total. It was followed by electrical machinery (6.8%), measurement (5.9%), medical technology (5.4%), and digital communication (5.3%).

 

Trademark

Worldwide filings of trademark applications were estimated to be around 11.63 million in 2023, covering an estimated 15.23 million of classes, a drop of 2% over 2022, marking the second consecutive annual decrease since 2009.

 

In 2023, China-based applicants filed the highest number of trademark applications, with an application class count of around 7.4 million (down 3.4% year-on-year). Following were applicants from the US (849,876 classes, down 10.1%), Russia (543,692, up 30.1%), India (496,293, up 6.1%), and Germany (441,293, down 7.3%).

 

As of 2023, active trademark registrations across 155 IP offices globally were estimated to be around 88.2 million, an increase of 6.4% over 2022. China, with 46.1 million registrations, had the highest number of trademark registrations in force, followed by India and the US, each with nearly 3.2 million registrations in force.

 

Industrial Design

In 2023, global filings of industrial design applications were around 1.19 million, containing about 1.52 million designs (up 2.8% year-on-year).

 

In terms of design count, China, with filings of 882,807 designs in applications (up 5% year-on-year), was the most active in the world in 2023, and following were the US (69,076 designs, up 2.6%), Germany (64,986, down 7.6%), Italy (60,486, up 15.7%), and South Korea (60,120, down 3.4%). Together, these top five origins contributed to 74.6% of the global design count in 2023. 

 

In 2023, active industrial design registrations worldwide were estimated to be around 6.08 million, a 10.5% increase year-on-year. China, with 3.2 million registrations, accounted for 53.2% of the active industrial design registrations in 2023, which was followed by the US (424,718) and South Korea (414,117).

 

Plant variety

In 2023, approximately 29,070 plant variety applications were filed worldwide, up 6.6% year-on-year, maintaining the trend of growth for the eighth consecutive year.

 

China, with filings of 15,552 applications (up 25.9% year-on-year), accounted for 53.5% of the global total, followed by the Netherlands (2,924 applications, up 1.7%), the US (1,763, down 16.8%), France (993, down 14.9%), and the UK (939, down 43.3%).

 

Geographical indication

In 2023, an estimated 58,600 protected GIs were in existence on the basis of data from 86 countries and regions. As of 2023, China had the most GIs in force (9,785) within its territory, followed by Germany (7,586), Hungary (7,290), and the Czech Republic (6,657).

 

Wines and spirits constituted the largest class of GIs in force in 2023, accounting for 48.1% of the global total, while agricultural products and foodstuffs accounted for 44.8% and handicrafts 4.2% of the total. 

 


Date:2024-11-14Return to List
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