Patent applications near 3 million in 2015, spurred by Chinese innovations, UN reports

A new report by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) on Wednesday found that spurred by Chinese innovations, the number of patent applications rose to 2.9 million in 2015, up nearly 8 percent from the previous year, Farhan Haq, the UN deputy spokesman, told reporters here.

"The jump was powered by innovators in China who filed more than one million applications for the first time within a single year," Haq said.

After China, innovators from the United States and Japan filed the most applications, he said.

According to the report, Chinese innovators filed the most patent applications (1,010,406) in 2015, followed by those from the United States (526,296) and Japan (454,285), and China's patent office received 1,101,864 filings in 2015, making it the first office to receive more than a million applications in a single year.

An estimated 10.6 million patents were in force around the globe in 2015. The U.S. applications accounted for about a quarter (24.9 percent of the total), followed by 18.3 percent in Japan and 13.9 percent in China.

In terms of sectors, computer technology (7.9 percent of the total) saw the highest percentage of published patent applications worldwide, followed by electrical machinery (7.3 percent) and digital communication (4.9 percent).

Around 1.24 million patents were granted worldwide in 2015 (5.2 percent more than 2014, and the fastest growth rate since 2012). This was due mainly to an increase of grants in China, which issued 359,316 patents in 2015 to surpass the U.S. (298,407) as the largest patent issuing office, WIPO noted.

Trademark applications, too rose 15.3 percent to about six million in and worldwide industrial design applications grew by 2.3 percent to 872,000, according to WIPO.

China also saw the highest trademark filing activity with some 2.83 million applications, followed by the United States (517,297), European Union (EU) Intellectual Property Office (366,383) and Japan (345,070), said the report.

In addition, 2015 saw about 4.4 million trademark registrations, covering some 6.2 million cases, recorded. This was an increase of 26.6 percent over 2014 and the fastest growth in more than 15 years.

Around 4.4 million trademark registrations covering 6.2 million classes were recorded worldwide in 2015. This was a 26.6 percent increase on 2014 and the fastest growth in more than 15 years.

Global applications for industrial design -- the ornamental or aesthetic aspect of an article, consist of three dimensional features (shape of article) or two dimensional features (patterns, lines or colour) grew by 2.3 percent, rebounding from a sharp decrease recorded in 2014.

Designers across the world filed 872,800 applications containing 1.1 million designs. The growth was mainly due to increases in applications filed China, the Republic of Korea and the United States.

WIPO is a specialized agency of the UN provides business services for obtaining intellectual property (IP) rights in multiple countries and resolving disputes. It works to strengthen capacity in developing countries to help them benefit from using IP. WIPO also provides free access to unique knowledge banks of IP information.

"As policy-makers seek to invigorate growth around the world, it is encouraging to report that intellectual property filing activity saw healthy progression in 2015," said WIPO Director General Francis Gurry, announcing the agency's World Intellectual Property Indicators (WIPI) report.

"IP use grew in most countries in 2015, reflecting its increasing importance in a globalized knowledge economy," he added. Enditem