Global patent filings witness strong growth in 2013, with robust increase in China

Global patent filings saw a strong growth in 2013, with a robust increase in China as a major boost, said World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) in its latest report released on Tuesday.

According to the benchmark report entitled as World Intellectual Property Indicators 2014, patent filings, usually regarded as proxy for the strength of innovation, rose by 9 percent to nearly 2.6 million globally in 2013, a third of which were filed by China, followed by the United States who accounted for some 22 percent of the world total.

The top two received more than half of global patent filings, and Japan, with over 320,000 filings, ranked as the third largest recipients in 2013.

The report noted that computer technology (7.6 percent of total) saw the most published applications worldwide, followed by electrical machinery (7.2 percent), measurement (4.7 percent), digital communication (4.5 percent) and medical technology (4.3 percent).

As for other intellectual property (IP) filing activities in 2013 across the world, trademark applications rose to nearly 5 million, in which China topped the list again.

The industrial designs applications reached around 1.24 million in 2013, up by 2.5 percent from the previous year, with China as the first which accounted for some 53 percent of global total.

To outline the big picture of global IP filings, Francis Gurry, WIPO Director General, told reporters that "what we are seeing in the IP filing field is a mirror of what we are seeing in the world economy," further noting that "IP filing increases are robust in China and the U.S., while declining in Europe and Japan."

"Global intellectual property filing trends mirror the broader economic picture. The diverging performance of the world economy appears to be leaving its mark on the global innovation landscape," said Gurry.