China fuels surge in global IP growth
A rapid increase in IP filings in China and by its citizens is driving global IP growth, a report has shown.The report, published on December 9 by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), shows that Chinese residents filed and its IP office handled the most patents, utility models, industrial designs and trademarks.
It is the first time that China has topped both of those measures.
WIPO director general Francis Gurry said that while economic recovery since the 2009 financial crisis has been uneven and has failed to bring down unacceptably high levels of unemployment, “IP filings have increased at a faster rate than before the crisis”.
With about 2.35 million patents filed, the global growth in patents was the fastest in 18 years. Following a 3.9 percent decrease in 2009, filings began increasing in 2010 (7.6 percent) before rising again in 2011 (8.1 percent) and jumping further in 2012 (9.2 percent).
China was heavily responsible for these figures. For the first time, Chinese residents filed the most patents (560,681) worldwide, while the State Intellectual Property Office of the People’s Republic of China (SIPO) handled 652,777 applications, making it the largest office for the second year running.
Turning to trademarks, the report breaks the figures down into the number of classes specified in applications (class counts). In 2012 there were 6.58 million class counts, representing a 6 percent increase from 2011.
Chinese residents filed about 1.58 million class counts, while SIPO received 16.5 percent more than last year, though Turkey (24.1 percent) showed the strongest growth of any IP office. Some IP offices in the European Union, for example Italy (8.3 percent) and Germany (6.4 percent), recorded fewer class counts than in 2011.
The growth (17 percent) in industrial designs last year was the highest since design counts records became available in 2004; about 1.22 million designs were filed worldwide. The Russian Federation’s IP office led the way, with a 29.5 percent growth in designs, followed by SIPO, with 26.1 percent.
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