The world’s five largest patent offices – the IP5 – has released the 2012 IP5 Statistics Report,  designed to facilitate an understanding of operations and patent procedures among the offices, while providing a means for gauging inventive activity, technology flow, and comparing procedures. The IP5 is comprised of the Japan Patent Office (JPO), the Korean Intellectual Property Office (KIPO), China’s State Intellectual Property Office (SIPO), the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) and the European Patent Office (EPO).

According to the Report’s Executive Summary, the IP5 Offices granted almost 924,000 patents in 2012 – an increase of 17 percent compared to 2011. In addition, 1.876 million patent applications were filed in the IP5 Offices in 2012, which represents an 11 percent increase over the previous year.

The IP5 Offices, which together handle about 89% of the world’s patent applications, began meeting in 2007. They have since worked together to explore ways to further optimize joint efforts to improve quality and efficiency of the examination process and to explore and optimize work sharing opportunities between the offices, according to a statement from the USPTO.

The IP5 Statistics Report was first released in 1983 as a project of the Trilateral Cooperation – the EPO, the JPO, and the USPTO.  In 2008, the KIPO joined the effort and the first Four Office Statistics Report was produced. The 2011 IP5 Statistics Report represented a milestone in IP5 cooperation, encompassing the full cooperation of all the IP5 Offices including the SIPO. The IP5 Offices intends to continue holding discussions on statistics and improving IP5 cooperation for next year’s Statistics Report.

The 2012 IP5 Statistics Report is available on the IP5 website at www.fiveipoffices.org/stats/statisticalreports/2012edition.html.