IP Filings Rebound in 2010

10 September 2012

A report published by WIPO in December 2011 shows that intellectual property (IP) filings worldwide rebounded strongly in 2010 after a considerable decline in 2009.

The recovery in IP filings was stronger than the overall economic recovery. Patent and trademark filings grew by 7.2% and 11.8% respectively in 2010 compared to growth of 5.1% in the global gross domestic product (GDP), with China and the United States accounting for the greatest share of the increased filings.

In Europe, IP filing growth by France, Germany and the UK far exceeded the GDP growth rate of the three largest European economies in 2010.

The 7.2% growth in patent applications in 2010 – the highest growth rate in five years – followed a 3.6% decline in 2009. The total number of 1.98 million patent applications worldwide was an all time high. Similarly, trademark filings rose by 11.8% in 2010 to reach 3.66 million – another all time high – having fallen by 2.6% in 2009.

In his foreword to the 2011 World Intellectual Property Indicators (WIPI) Report, WIPO Director General Francis Gurry notes that the upturn in IP filings shows that companies across the globe have been continuing to innovate. “This can help to create new jobs and generate prosperity once macroeconomic stability is restored,” he writes, while cautioning that “if economic conditions were to deteriorate sharply in the short term – as happened in 2009 – companies might be forced to curtail or abandon their investments in innovation, stifling an essential source of growth.”

The report, which contains detailed statistical information on national and international data up to 2010, shows that China and the US accounted for four-fifths of the 7.2% worldwide growth in patent filings.

The US patent office saw 7.5% growth in 2010 – after two years of near zero growth – and received the largest total number of applications (490,226). The patent office of China (391,177 filings) overtook the office of Japan (344,598 filings) to become the second largest recipient of patent applications in 2010. This mirrored wider economic trends in a year in which China overtook Japan to become the second largest economy in the world, as measured by GDP.

The majority of the top 20 offices saw growth in applications in 2010, in contrast to 2009. Double digit growth was reached in China (24.3%), the European Patent Office (12.2%), Singapore (11.9%) and the Russian Federation (10.2%).

In the past decade, the patent office of China has seen the most dramatic increases in application levels. Between 2001 and 2010, annual growth averaged 22.6%, with patent filings rising from 63,450 in 2001 to 391,177 in 2010.

Applications at the patent offices of middle and low-income economies also rebounded strongly in 2010 after falling in 2009. Colombia, Malaysia, Philippines, Ukraine and Vietnam saw double-digit growth in applications in 2010.

The Report also analyzes the numbers of filings by resident applicants. These show similar trends, with Chinese residents (293,066 applications) overtaking Japanese residents (290,081 applications) to become the most active patent filers in 2010.

Residents of Japan (172,945 applications) and the US (178,355 applications) filed, by far, the largest number of patent applications outside their own country. However, residents of Canada, Israel, the Netherlands and Switzerland filed more than 80% of their total applications abroad. Residents of China, on the other hand, filed only a small proportion (5%) of applications abroad.

Looking at patenting activity across different technology fields, the Report shows that computer technology, electrical machinery, audio-visual technology and medical technology accounted for the largest shares of patent filings worldwide. However, the relative importance of different technology fields varied substantially across countries. Broadly defined information communications and technologies (ICTs) accounted for the largest share of filings in Finland and Sweden, with pharmaceuticals more prominent in Belgium, India and Switzerland.

The estimated total of 3.66 million trademark applications worldwide in 2010 consisted of 2.78 million resident and 0.88 million non-resident applications. The IP office of China accounted for three-fifths of the 11.8% growth in applications worldwide.

Most of the large offices returned to positive growth in applications in 2010, having seen declines the previous year. The IP office of China received around a quarter of a million additional applications in 2010 compared to 2009 – more than the number of total annual applications received by France, Germany, and the UK together. A number of other large offices saw double-digit growth in 2010, notably Hong Kong (18.3%), Mexico (16%), France (13.1%), OHIM (12.2%), Brazil (11.5%) and the Russian Federation (11.4%).

The Report shows that middleincome countries filed a higher number of trademark applications per GDP as compared to high-income countries. Chile filed 218 trademark applications per billion GDP in 2010. Bulgaria (166), Ecuador (157) and Vietnam (128) also show high ratios of trademark filings per GDP, exceeding those for Germany (72), Japan (39) and the US (22).

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