Nation first country to file 1m patent requests in single year: UN

China is driving Asian- led growth in innovation worldwide, becoming the first country to file 1 million patent applications in a single year, Reuters reported Thursday, citing the World Intellectual Property Organization ( WIPO).

Chinese innovators filed most of their 2015 applications in electrical engineering, which includes telecoms, followed by computer technology and semiconductors, and measurement instruments, including medical technology, the UN agency said.

“The figures for China are quite extraordinary. It is the first patent office in the world to receive more than 1 million applications,” WIPO Director- general Francis Gurry told a news briefing on Wednesday to launch its report titled World Intellectual Property Indicators.

The bulk of China’s 1.01 million applications were for domestic protection in patents, trademarks and industrial design, with only some 42,154 filed abroad, he said.

But there is a “slow and gradual” increase in China’s applications for international patents, Gurry said.

“Once again we see an increasing dominance by Asia as the origin of filing activity for intellectual property. If you look at the figures, you see 62 percent of global filing activity for patents is located in Asia and 68 percent of design applications are in Asia,” he added.