Patent Applications at 'Record Heights' on 'Soaring Demand' in China, Says WIPO

Global filings for patents, trademarks and industrial designs climbed to “record heights” in 2016 “amid soaring demand in China,” which processed more patent applications than the combined total for the U.S., Japan, South Korea and Europe, the World Intellectual Property Organization reported Wednesday. Inventors filed 3.1 million patent applications globally in 2016, an 8.3 percent increase from 2015. China received about 236,600 of the nearly 240,600 additional patent filings, accounting for 98 percent of total growth. China also drove the 16.4 percent increase in trademark applications to about 7 million, and the 10.4 percent increase in worldwide industrial design applications to nearly 1 million. Chinese patent authorities received a record 1.3 million patent applications in 2016 to lead the world, and the U.S. was a distant second with 606,000 applications filed. Rounding out the top five in patent applications filed: (1) Japan, with 318,000; (2) South Korea, 209,000; (3) Europe, 159,000. On a per-capita basis, Germany was the global leader, followed by Japan, South Korea, the U.S. and China.