World IP Indicators 2018: China Continues to Drive Worldwide Growth in IP Filings

According to the World Intellectual Property Indicators 2018 published recently by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), in year 2017, patent filings around the world reached 3.17 million; trademark filings totaled 12.39 million; and industrial design filings exceeded 1.24 million.

 

As noted by WIPO director general Francis Gurry, China remained to be the main driver of global growth in IP filings, with its patent filings growing by 14.2% and trademark filings by 55.2%, both from already high levels, and its share of global patent filings and trademark filings reaching 43.6% and 46.3% respectively.

 

By origin of the filings, the top five IP offices that received most patent applications in 2017 were the offices of China (1,381,594 applications), the US (606,956), Japan (318,479), Republic of Korea (204,775), and the European Patent Office (166,585). These five offices together accounted for 84.5% of the world's patent filings of the year.

 

For trademark applications by class count, the office of China's class count of 5,739,823 during the year was followed by that of the US (613,921), Japan (560,269), the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) (371,508), and that of the Islamic Republic of Iran (358,353). These five offices accounted for 62% of all trademark filings worldwide in 2017.

 

As for industrial designs, the office of China received 628,658 design applications in 2017, representing 50.6% of all design applications filed worldwide during the year. The office of China was followed by EUIPO (111,021), the offices of the Republic of Korea (67,357), Turkey (46,875), and the US (45,881).