WIPO Publishes World IP Indicators 2014
According to World Intellectual Property Indicators 2014 published recently by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), global patent filings continued to see strong annual increase in 2013, driven mainly by growth in China and the US.
In 2013, 2.57 million patent applications were filed worldwide, up 9% from 2012, and the top three contributors to the world's total were China (825,136 applications), the US (571,612 applications), and Japan (328,436 applications), which accounted for 32.1%, 22.3%, and 12.8% of the total respectively.
For trademark applications, an estimated 4.87 million class counts (the number of classes specified in the trademark applications) were filed worldwide in 2013, an increase of 7.6% from 2012. In terms of applications by office, China Trademark Office saw the most active filings with 188,000 class counts, followed by the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) with 486,128, and OHIM (the office for seeking trademark protection in the European Union as a whole) with 324,749.
Apart from patents and trademarks, World Intellectual Property Indicators also provides on annual basis indicators related to utility models, industrial designs, and plant variety protection, drawing on data from national and regional IP offices, WIPO, the World Bank, and United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).
