Global Patent Applications Rose in 2014 for Fifth Straight Year, WIPO Reports

Nearly 2.7 million patent applications were filed globally in 2014, a 4.5 percent rise from 2013, for the fifth straight year of increases, the World Intellectual Property Organization said in a Monday report. China drove much of the 2014 growth, as “application activity in China outstripped the combined total in its next-closest followers,” the U.S. and Japan, WIPO said. Chinese patent offices accepted about 928,200 filings in 2014, followed by the U.S. (578,800), Japan (326,000), South Korea (210,300) and the European Patent Office (152,700), it said. China is on pace to become the first to accept a million applications in a single year, it said. China also led the world last year in rate of growth (12.5 percent), followed by the EPO (3.2 percent), South Korea (2.8 percent) and the U.S. (1.3 percent), it said. Japan had a 0.7 percent decline, it said. U.S. applicants filed the most patent applications abroad (224,400), followed by Japan (200,000) and Germany (105,600), WIPO said. Chinese applicants filed relatively few applications abroad -- only around 36,700, it said.