Asia accounted for more than two-thirds of all patent, trademark and industrial design applications in 2018, with China driving overall growth in demand for intellectual property (IP) rights as the United States of America (U.S.) maintained its primacy in patent applications filed in export markets. Innovators across the globe filed 3.3 million patent applications in 2018, up 5.2% for a ninth straight yearly increase, according to WIPO’s annual World Intellectual Property Indicators (WIPI) report. Global trademark filing activity rose to 14.3 million, while that for industrial designs reached 1.3 million. Asia continues to outpace other regions in filing activity for patents, trademarks, industrial designs and other intellectual property rights that are at the center of the global economy.
Patents
China’s IP office received the highest number of patent applications in 2018, a record 1.54 million applications that amounts to 46.4% of the global total and is similar in magnitude to the combined total of the offices ranked two through 11. China’s IP office was followed by the offices of the U.S. (597,141), Japan (313,567), the Republic of Korea (209,992) and the European Patent Office (EPO; 174,397). Together, these five offices accounted for 85.3% of the world total. Among the top five offices, China (+11.6%), the EPO (+4.7%) and the Republic of Korea (+2.5%) recorded growth in applications, while both Japan (-1.5%) and the U.S. (-1.6%) saw small declines. For the U.S., it was the first decline in applications since 2009. Germany (67,898), India (50,055), the Russian Federation (37,957), Canada (36,161) and Australia (29,957) also featured among the top 10 offices. All of these offices saw growth in filings, ranging from 7.5% in India to 0.3% in Germany. Asia is the hub of global patent filings Asia has strengthened its position as the region with the greatest activity in patent filings. Offices located in Asia received two-thirds (66.8%) of all applications filed worldwide in 2018 – a considerable increase from 50.8% in 2008 – primarily driven by growth in China. Offices located in North America accounted
for just under one-fifth (19%) of the 2018 world total, while those in Europe accounted for just over one-tenth (10.9%). The combined share of offices located in Africa, Latin America and the
Caribbean, and Oceania was 3.3% in 2018.
Trademarks
An estimated 10.9 million trademark applications covering 14.3 million classes were filed worldwide in 2018. The number of classes specified in applications grew by 15.5% in 2018, marking a ninth consecutive year of growth. China’s IP office had the highest volume of filing activity[1] with a class count of around 7.4 million; followed by the IP offices of the U.S. (640,181) and Japan (512,156); the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO; 392,925) and the IP office of the Islamic Republic of Iran (384,338). Among the top 20 offices, the largest increases between 2017 and 2018 were in the IP offices of Indonesia (+29.1%), China (+28.3%), India (+20.9%), the Republic of Korea (+14.5%) and the United Kingdom (+12.4%). Asia leads in trademark filings Offices located in Asia accounted for 70% of all trademark filing activity in 2018, up from 36.2% in 2008. Europe’s share declined from 38.4% in 2008 to 15.8% in 2018. North America accounted for 5.8% of the world total in 2018, while the combined share of offices located in Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, and Oceania was 8.4% in 2018. There were an estimated 49.3 million active trademark registrations worldwide in 2018 – up 13.8% on 2017, with 19.6 million in China alone, followed by 2.4 million in the U.S., and 1.9 million in India.
Industrial designs
An estimated 1 million industrial design applications containing 1.3 million designs were filed worldwide in 2018, representing a 5.7% year-on-year increase. China’s IP office received applications containing 708,799 designs in 2018, corresponding to 54% of the world total. It was followed by the EUIPO (108,174) and the IP offices of the Republic of Korea (68,054), the U.S. (47,137) and Germany (44,460). Among the top 20 offices, the following five offices reported double-digit growth in design counts: the U.K. (+42.4%), the Russian Federation (+21%), Italy (+16.6%), India (+13.6%) and China (+12.7%). Asia sees the highest design activity Offices located in Asia accounted for more than two-thirds (69.7%) of all designs in applications filed worldwide in 2018, followed by Europe (23%) and North America (4.1%). The combined share of Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, and Oceania was 3.2% in 2018. Designs related to furnishings accounted for 10.5% of global filing activity[2], followed by those related to clothing (8.3%) and to packages and containers (7.7%). The total number of industrial design registrations in force worldwide grew by 6.5% to reach around 4 million. The largest number of registrations in force was in China (1.6 million), followed by the Republic of Korea (344,560), the U.S. (336,116) and Japan (257,157).
Source WIPO