WIPO chief calls China's patent application growth "extraordinary"
Source: Xinhua 2017-03-16 05:55:43
GENEVA, March 15 (Xinhua) -- The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Director General Francis Gurry on Wednesday lauded China's strong performance in international patent and trademark filing.
"China's performance is quite extraordinary. In terms of international patent applications, the number of applications from China rose by 44 percent in one year," Gurry told the press.
WIPO revealed that China filed 43,168 applications under the organization's patent cooperation treaty (PCT) in 2016, up from 29,839 two years ago.
This compares to the 56,595 and 45,239 applications filed by the
United States and
Japan respectively.
China's trademark and industrial designs filings, which are handled by WIPO's Madrid and Hague systems, also showed strong growth last year, with China ranking fourth in terms of the number of global trademark applications made in 2016.
"China-based filers are behind much of the growth in international patent and trademark filings, making great strides in internationalizing their businesses as the country continues its journey from 'Made in China' to 'Created in China'," Gurry explained.
While the United States and Japan continue to lead the way in terms of the number of PCT applications, growth there has been sluggish, with the United States posting a 0.9 percent drop in the number of international patents filed last year.
China's growing clout is also reflected by the fact that two Chinese firms (ZTE Corporation and Huawei Technologies) topped the list of companies which filed the most PCT patent applications last year, ahead of U.S.-based Qualcomm Inc.
Overall, some 233,000 PCT applications were registered in 2016 (up 7.3 percent from 2015), with 52,550 Madrid applications filed across the globe (up 7.2 percent).
A further 18,716 (up 13.9 percent) design applications were documented by WIPO, meaning that all three of the Geneva-based organization's international patent filing systems posted growth in 2016.
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Record Year for International Patent Applications in 2016; Strong Demand Also for Trademark and Industrial Design Protection
Geneva, March 15, 2017
PR/2017/804
China’s ZTE Corporation overtook its crosstown rival Huawei Technologies as the biggest filer of international patent applications via WIPO in 2016 and U.S.-based Qualcomm Inc. claimed third position amid another year of strong demand for WIPO’s intellectual property filing services for
patents,
trademarks and
industrial designs.
Overall, applicants based in the United States maintained their number one ranking for the 39th year running, accounting for roughly a quarter (24.3%) of the 233,000 applications filed under WIPO’s
Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) in 2016 – itself a 7.3 percent year-on-year increase – followed by applicants in Japan (19.4%) and China (18.5%), with the latter driving the overall growth in demand. Digital communications and computer technology showed the greatest activity by sector.
Similar to the PCT, demand grew by 7.2 percent for WIPO’s international trademark filing service (
Madrid System), which saw 52,550 applications, while the number of industrial designs handled by WIPO’s
Hague System rose 13.9 percent to 18,716 – it is the seventh year in a row of growth in all three WIPO filing systems, which save filers time and money.
“In an interlinked, knowledge-based global economy, creators and innovators are increasingly relying on intellectual property to promote and protect their competitive edge around the world,” said
WIPO Director General Francis Gurry. “China-based filers are behind much of the growth in international patent and trademark filings, making great strides in internationalizing their businesses as the country continues its journey from ‘Made in China’ to ‘Created in China’.”
Patents
Video: Animated film on patent filing trends
Video
In 2016, U.S.-based applicants filed 56,595 PCT applications, followed by applicants from Japan (45,239) and China (43,168), which has posted double-digit growth each year since 2002. If this current trend continues, China will overtake the U.S. within two years as the largest user of the PCT System. Germany and the Republic of Korea with 18,315 and 15,560 applications were ranked fourth and fifth, respectively (Annex 1
). China and India (1,529) are the only two middle-income countries among the top 15 origins.
Who filed the most PCT patent applications
in 2016?
In total, Asia accounted for 47.4% of total PCT applications, just short of the combined share of Europe (25.6%) and North America (25.3%).
Among the top 15 origins, China recorded extraordinary growth (+44.7%), while Italy (+9.3%), Israel (+9.1%), India (+8.3%) and the Netherlands (+8%) also saw strong growth rates. In contrast, Canada (-17.3%) – for the second consecutive year – saw a substantial decline in filings, linked to declining applications from RIM/Blackberry and Nortel.
Shenzhen -based telecoms companies – ZTE Corporation (4,123 published PCT applications) and Huawei Technologies (3,692) – occupied the top two spots in the list of top PCT applicants, with ZTE moving up two spots to push Huawei out of the leader position. They were followed by Qualcomm Incorporated of the U.S. (2,466), Mitsubishi Electric Corporation of Japan (2,053) and LG Electronics of the Republic of Korea (1,888). The top 10 applicant list comprised seven companies from Asia and three from the U.S. (Annex 2
).
Among educational institutions, the University of California – with 434 published PCT applications – was the largest user of the PCT System and has maintained that position since 1993. Massachusetts Institute of Technology (236) was ranked second followed by Harvard University (162), Johns Hopkins University (158) and the University of Texas System (152) (Annex 3
). While the top 10 is dominated by U.S.-based institutions, top 20 list consists of 10 U.S. and 10 Asian universities.
Digital communication (8.5%) accounted for the largest share of published PCT applications, followed by computer technology (8.2%), electrical machinery (6.9%) and medical technology (6.8%) (Annex 4
). Among the top 10 technologies, medical technology (+12.8%) optics (+12.7%) and digital communication (+10.7%) saw the fastest growth in 2016.
Interactive charts on patents
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Record Year for International Patent Applications in 2016; Strong Demand Also for Trademark and Industrial Design Protection | WIPO
