China takes 2nd place for WIPO patent filings

China overtook Japan to become the second-largest source of international patent filings via the World Intellectual Property Organization's Patent Cooperation Treaty in 2017, despite strong growth in Japanese companies’ use of the system, according to the UN agency.

WIPO said in a news release that at current trends, China is projected to overtake the United States — which currently files the most international patents annually — within three years as the largest source of patent applications via the PCT.

“This rapid rise in Chinese use of the international patent system shows that innovators there are increasingly looking outward, seeking to spread their original ideas into new markets as the Chinese economy continues its rapid transformation,” said WIPO Director General Francis Gurry.

“This is part of a larger shift in the geography of innovation, with half of all international patent applications now originating in East Asia.”

Last year, US-based patent applicants filed 56,624 applications using the PCT, followed by 48,882 from China and 48,208 from Japan. Germany and South Korea ranked No 4 and No 5, with 18,982 and 15,763 applications, respectively.

Two Shenzhen-based Chinese technology companies were the top filers via the PCT in 2017.

Huawei was the largest and ZTE took second place, followed by the US-based Intel, Japan’s Mitsubishi and Qualcomm, also from the US.

China’s LE Holdings burst into the international top 20, rising 2,257 spots from last year with 1,397 applications filed using the PCT in 2017. Tencent, Yulong Telecommunication, Oppo and Xiaomi all entered the top 50 last year.

In trademark filings via WIPO’s Madrid system, China saw the fastest growth among the top 15 origins with a 36.3 percent year-on-year increase, followed by Russia with 23.9 percent, South Korea with 9.8 percent and the United Kingdom with 9.3 percent.

Both China and Russia recorded their second consecutive year of double-digit growth.

For patent, trademark and industrial design applications using WIPO’s filing services, 2017 was a record year, according to the organization, marking the eighth consecutive year of growth for all three of its filing systems.

Inventors from around the world filed 243,500 international patent applications via the PCT in 2017, 4.5 percent more than the previous year, driven by strong growth from China and Japan.

Demand grew by 5 percent year-on-year for WIPO’s Madrid system, which saw 56,200 trademark applications.

The number of industrial designs WIPO handled grew by 3.8 percent year-on-year to reach 19,429.