World IP Indicators 2023: Global Patent Applications Reach Record High Despite Global Economic Uncertainty
The World Intellectual Property Indicators 2023 report has recently been published by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). The report analyses IP activities around the globe, drawing on statistics of 2022 from about 150 national and regional IP offices of the world.
According to the report, patent applications around the world amounted to 3,457,400 in 2022, a record high and an increase of 1.7% over 2021, marking a third consecutive year of growth since a 3% decline in 2019. The growth to a large extent reflected the substantial rise in filings by China and India, which saw additional applications of 33,605 and 15,495 respectively over 2021.
In 2022, China continued to be the top origin of patent applications, with 1,584,664 patent applications filed worldwide. The rest of the top five filers were the US (505,539), Japan (405,361), Korea (272,315), and Germany (155,896).
About 17.3 million patents were in force across 137 jurisdictions in 2022, a 4.1% increase over 2021. And the highest number of patents in force as of the year was in China (4,212,188), followed by the US (3,343,159), Japan (2,029,223), Korea (1,214,146), and Germany (917,232).
In terms of trademarks, an estimated 11.8 million trademark applications, containing an estimated 15.5 million classes, were filed worldwide in 2022, marking a substantial decline of 15.7% by number of applications and a drop of 14.5% by class count, which, according to the report, is a return to a more regular level after the surge in applications linked to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.
In 2022, Chinese applicants continued to be the world's most active trademark filers, with an application class count of 7,678,344, followed by the US (945,571), Turkiye (482,567), Germany (479,334), and India (467,918).
Notably, among the top 20 offices, 14 experienced a decline in trademark filing in 2022 compared to the previous year. Despite being the largest source of applications, China fell 20.9% by number of applications, and obvious drops were also seen in Germany (down 14.2%) and the US (down 8.9%), both being among the top five origins.
In 2022, there were an estimated 82.5 million active trademark registrations across 152 IP offices globally. The office of China, with a total of 42,671,911, continued to have the highest number of trademark registrations in force as of 2022, followed by the offices of the US (3,102,589), India (2,887,335), the UK (2,502,358), and Japan (2,180,817).
As for designs, in 2022, about 1.1 million design applications, containing an estimated 1.5 million designs, were filed worldwide, representing a decrease of 3% by number of applications and that of 2.1% by design count over 2021, both marking a first drop since 2014.
Chinese applicants, with filings of 841,164 designs, were the most active in the world in terms of design count in 2022. They were followed by applicants from Türkiye (80,559), Germany (70,346), the US (67,349), and Korea (62,014). Together, these top five countries accounted for 75.6% of the global design count in 2022.
In 2022, there were an estimated 5.8 million active design registrations worldwide based on data provided by 136 offices, representing an increase of 8.8% over 2021. Registrations in force in the office of China grew by 9.7%, reaching 2,831,512 and contributing to nearly half (49%) of the global total in 2022. China was followed by Korea (406,009), the US (389,540), the European Union Intellectual Property Office (296,912), and Japan (270,073).
